LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

PRESENTED  BY 

H.  Heinz  Company 

CT  275  . H5  M3  1923 
McCafferty,  E.  D. 

Henry  J,  Heinz 


\ 


Henry  J.  Heinz 

A  Biography 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/henryjheinzbiogr00mcca_0 


Henry  J.  Heinz 


Henry  <L  Heinz 

A  Biography 


v/ 

E.  D*  McCafferty 

Formerly 

Private  Secretary  to  Henry  J.  Heinz 


Published  by 

Bartlett  Orr  Press 

New  York 


MCMXXIII 


Copyright  1923  by 
Bartlett  Orr  Press 
New  York 


TABLE  OF  CHAPTERS 


Page 

Preface  .  . .  1 1 

I*  The  America  of  His  Boyhood  .  17 

II.  Lessons  of  Home . 29 

III.  The  Dignity  of  Labor  .  37 

IV.  Early  Business  Ventures .  ♦  53 

V.  The  First  Partnership  ....  67 

VI.  A  Period  of  Trouble  .  ....  75 

VII.  Building  Anew  ......  87 

VIII.  The  Business  Record  .  ....  99 

IX.  Elements  of  His  Personality  .  .  109 

X.  An  Enduring  Structure  .  .  .  .  127 

XI.  Business  Policies . 137 

XII.  Home  and  the  Family  Fireside  .  .  1 5  1 

XIII.  Travel:  A  Revealer  of  Character  .  163 

XIV.  Collecting  Art  and  Antiques  .  .  177 

XV.  Religion  and  Sunday-school  Work  189 

XVI.  Citizen . 209 

XVII.  Reading  the  Record  .  .  .  .  .  225 


I 


V 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing  Page 

Henry  J.  Heinz  5 

The  Mother  of  Henry  J.  Heinz  .  29 

The  Home  in  Sharpsburg  which  Henry  J, 

Heinz  Built  for  His  Father  ....  65 

The  First  Desk  used  by  Mr.  Heinz  in  Sharps¬ 
burg,  1869  .........  7 1 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henry  J.  Heinz  on  their  Wed¬ 
ding  Trip  ........  81 

The  Board  of  Directors  of  H.  J.  Heinz  Com¬ 
pany,  19*9  *  95 

The  Main  Plant  at  Pittsburgh  Built  Up  by 

Henry  J.  Heinz  .  99 

Experience  and  Getting  Experience — Henry 

J.  Heinz  and  His  Three  Sons  .  .  .  129 

Heinz  Ocean  Pier,  Atlantic  City  .  .  .  .  145 

Birthplace  of  Henry  J.  Heinz . 155 

“Greenlawn,”  Residence  of  Henry  J.  Heinz, 

Pittsburgh  .........  155 

Mrs.  Henry  J.  Heinz . 1 6 1 

The  House  in  Sharpsburg  where  the  Business 

was  Started .  .  .  177 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

( Continued ) 

Facing  Page 

The  House  where  the  Business  was  Started 
Being  Moved  from  Sharpsburg  to  Pitts¬ 
burgh  . .  177 

Henry  J.  Heinz  with  Cradle  Roll  Represent¬ 
atives  at  State  Sunday  School  Conven¬ 
tion,  York,  Penna.,  1916  ,  .  .  .  193 

Sarah  Heinz  House,  Built  by  Henry  J.  Heinz 

as  a  Memorial  to  His  Wife  .  .  .  .  209 

Dinner  Tendered  to  Henry  J.  Heinz  on  His 

Seventieth  Birthday  ♦  .  ♦  .  .  .  225 

Memorial  Erected  by  Employees  of  H,  J, 

Heinz  Company  in  Memory  of  the 
Founder . 231 


Preface 


T HIS  is  the  biography  of  a  man  who  did  not 
seek  power,  or  aspire  to  eminence  above  his 
fellow  men*  He  took  up  the  duties  that  lay 
next  to  his  hand*  He  accepted  the  world  as 
he  found  it;  and  he  left  it  better  where  he 
touched  it,  not  by  trying  to  make  epochal 
changes  in  it,  but  because,  day  by  day,  in  the 
daily  work  of  the  common  life,  he  thought 
of  his  neighbor*  Therefore  this  book  is 
largely  a  record  of  simple  deeds*  He  himself 
would  have  wished  it  to  be  so,  for  his  spirit 
was  a  spirit  of  reverence  for  the  simple  things 
of  daily  life*  It  was  his  pride  that  he  had 
tried  to  do  a  few  common  things  a  little 
better  than  they  had  been  done  before*  He 
succeeded  in  doing  many  common  things 
uncommonly  well*  He  succeeded  in  doing 
many  uncommon  things*  He  built  a  business 
whose  activities  extend  around  the  world* 
He  earned  wealth.  He  received  public  honors, 
in  his  own  native  land  of  America  and 
abroad*  But  when  he  died  he  was  the  same 
Henry  J*  Heinz  whom  men  had  learned  to 


PREFACE 


love  and  respect  when  he  was  young.  There 
was  a  quality  in  him  that  was  no  more  to 
be  disturbed  by  success  than  it  had  been  dis¬ 
turbed  by  adversity.  In  the  end  as  in  the 
beginning,  it  never  occurred  to  him  to  deal 
with  any  man  in  terms  of  relative  wealth, 
relative  position.  He  appraised  men  with 
his  heart  as  well  as  his  head;  and  he  was  not 
afraid  of  the  decision  of  his  heart.  He  was 
not  afraid  to  trust  men.  He  believed  in  them. 
So,  without  striving  to  be  a  reformer  of 
mankind,  without  perplexing  himself  with 
involved  schemes  of  democracy  or  economic 
relations,  he  entered  life  anew  every  morn¬ 
ing,  tranquilly  content  each  day  to  do  what 
is  expressed  in  a  proverb  of  his  mother's 
people:  “Pick  up  what  God  has  laid  at  the 
door." 

He  stopped  to  speak  to  children,  not  be¬ 
cause  he  had  set  theories  about  it,  but  because 
a  child  was  something  to  be  loved — one  of 
his  little  things  of  life.  He  stopped  to  speak 
to  men  laboring  on  the  streets,  not  because 
he  was  trying  to  be  democratic,  but  because 
he  was  Henry  J.  Heinz,  to  whom  every  man 
was  worth  while.  He  did  not  have  to 


PREFACE 


cultivate  democracy*  It  was  not  a  conde¬ 
scending  phrase  with  him*  He  never  thought 
of  himself  except  as  just  one  of  the  people  of 
the  land  that  he  loved* 

And  a  wonderful  thing  came  to  pass*  This 
simple  man,  who  wrote  no  books  about 
world-reform,  who  made  no  impassioned 
efforts  to  change  earth's  history,  who  with 
a  simple  spirit  simply  did  his  best  in  the  daily 
personal  contacts  during  the  day's  work, 
made  an  ever-widening  ripple*  His  death 
came  in  a  period  when  humanity  had  fed  so 
heavily  on  tragedies  and  bitterness  that 
death  was  a  commonplace  to  all  the  world* 
Yet  when  the  news  of  his  passing  went  forth 
men  in  Asia  and  Europe  and  from  one  end 
of  America  to  the  other  grieved  with  a  sense 
of  deep  loss*  One  of  his  relatives  was  on  a 
ship  in  strange  seas  among  men  of  many 
races*  A  man  of  the  crew  came  to  him  and 
said:  “He  was  passenger  on  a  ship  where  I 
was  employed*  He  never  passed  me  without 
saying  something  to  me  that  made  me  feel  I 
was  somebody*  There  was  something  that 
did  me  good  just  in  the  way  he  would  say 
'Good  morning*'" 


13 


PREFACE 


How  did  Henry  J.  Heinz  do  this  great 
thing — to  make  thousands  of  men  say  that 
they  were  better  for  his  having  lived?  During 
his  life,  and  especially  during  the  latter  part 
of  his  life,  the  world  had  seen  many  men  do 
great  things  in  many  dramatic  ways.  He 
had  not  staged  his  deeds  in  drama.  He  had 
not  sought  the  great  deed.  He  accomplished 
what  he  did,  because,  content,  he  followed 
the  promptings  of  an  unspoiled  heart.  He 
did  the  little  things;  and  lo,  the  days  of  the 
little  things  became  long  years,  and  every¬ 
where,  wherever  he  had  trod,  he  had  left  a 
benediction,  if  it  were  no  more  than  a  kind 
word.  No  more  than  a  kind  word?  Henry  J. 
Heinz  gave  many  things;  but  the  crown  of 
each  was  in  the  words  that  accompanied  the 
gift. 

These  stamped  his  giving,  not  as  benefac¬ 
tions  from  rich  to  poor,  not  as  philanthro¬ 
pies  dictated  by  the  brain  alone,  not  as  mere 
duties  that  a  prosperous  man  owes  to  others, 
not  as  liberalities  from  an  employer  to  em¬ 
ployees,  but  as  the  giving  of  a  friend  to 
friends,  as  the  loving  deed  of  a  brother  to 
brothers.  And  in  this  is  the  creed  for  all  men. 


14 


PREFACE 


It  makes  the  story  of  his  life  significant  far 
beyond  the  circle  of  those  who  knew  him 
personally,  and  loved  him,  and  love  him 
still*  He  did,  simply  and  directly,  what  every 
man  can  do  if  he  wilL  In  the  simple  practice 
of  good  will,  all  men  meet  on  common 
ground — the  great  and  the  small,  the  rich 
and  the  poor,  the  clever  men  and  the  men  of 
smaller  talents*  If  he  had  never  become  a 
great  producer  and  merchant;  if  he  had  never 
made  a  dollar;  if  his  name  had  never  gone 
beyond  those  who  knew  him  personally;  his 
life  still  would  have  had  this  influence  and 
proved  this  truth — that  the  power  of  indi¬ 
vidual  good  will  is  the  greatest  power  given 
to  mankind* 


i5 


r 


Henry  J,  Heinz 

A  Biography 

I 

THE  AMERICA  OF  HIS  BOYHOOD 

IN  1844,  when  Henry  J.  Heinz  was  born 
in  Birmingham  (now  the  South  Side  of 
Pittsburgh),  there  was  little  or  nothing  to 
prophesy  of  the  region  as  it  is  now*  The 
population  was  meagre  and  lived  frugally, 
with  agriculture  as  the  basic  occupation*  No 
man  dreamed  of  the  Pittsburgh  of  today* 
No  visions  of  fortune  were  dangled  before 
the  young  generation*  The  only  road  to 
prosperity  known  by  the  people  was  the 
slow,  steady  one  of  earning  and  saving*  The 
conditions  of  life  laid  upon  all  men  the 
necessity  for  thrift,  industry  and  patience* 
Self-reliance  was  bred  in  them,  because  the 
individual  had  to  do  for  himself  countless 
little  and  large  things  that  an  elaborate  social 
and  industrial  machinery  does  for  him  today* 


17 


THE  AMERICA  OF  HIS  BOYHOOD 


But  there  was  one  fact  common  to  life  in 
that  time  as  it  is  to  this.  Work  was  drudgery 
or  the  reverse,  according  to  the  spirit  with 
which  it  was  accepted  and  done. 

Young  Heinz  was  one  of  those  who  did 
not  make  drudgery  of  it.  Although  he  had 
to  begin  at  the  age  of  eight  years  to  do  a  share 
of  the  family's  labors,  and  though  each  year 
brought  increasing  duties,  he  never  indicated 
in  his  reminiscent  moods  that  his  boyhood 
was  anything  but  happy.  He  worked  daily 
in  his  mother's  kitchen  garden.  When  it  ex¬ 
panded,  he  sold  its  spare  produce  by  going 
through  the  village  with  a  basket.  When  he 
was  ten  years  old  his  industrial  progress  was 
marked  by  a  wheelbarrow  to  displace  the 
basket.  Two  years  later  his  business  had 
assumed  the  dignity  of  a  horse  and  wagon. 
Thus,  by  the  time  he  was  twelve  years  old, 
circumstances  already  had  set  his  foot  on  the 
path  that  was  to  lead  him  to  a  great  success, 
though  neither  he  nor  his  parents  had  such 
dreams. 

They  had  a  creed  for  him  better  than 
dreams.  It  was  a  creed  of  willingness — of 
willing  self-denial,  of  willing  sacrifice  for 


1 8 


THE  AMERICA  OF  HIS  BOYHOOD 


others,  of  willing  integrity*  They  did  not 
have  to  preach  it  to  their  children  in  many 
words,  for  they  lived  it  every  day  through 
all  their  lives*  To  the  day  of  his  death,  Henry 
J*  Heinz  never  ceased  to  honor  them*  He  was 
fifty-five  years  old  when  his  mother  died, 
and  his  words  about  her  were:  “In  living 
for  the  Master  and  serving  Him,  some  things 
have  been  incalculably  helpful,  and  I  turn, 
especially  at  this  time,  with  grateful  heart  to 
the  teachings  of  my  mother,  whom  only  a 
week  ago  the  Lord  soothed  to  sleep*  Many 
of  her  sayings  ever  stand  guard  around  my 
thoughts  or  influence  my  actions*”  Again  in 
the  opening  paragraph  of  his  will,  after  de¬ 
claring  his  faith  in  Christ  and  testifying  how 
God  had  sustained  him  through  a  long  life, 
he  added:  “This  legacy  was  left  me  by  my 
consecrated  mother,  who  was  a  woman  of 
strong  faith,  and  to  it  I  attribute  any  suc¬ 
cess  I  may  have  attained  during  my  life*” 
Both  his  parents  were  born  in  Germany* 
His  father's  family  had  lived  hundreds  of 
years  in  the  village  of  Kallstadt,  Province  of 
the  Rheinpfalz,  Bavaria,  where  the  records 
showed  generations,  mostly  vineyard  owners. 


19 


THE  AMERICA  OF  HIS  BOYHOOD 


going  back  to  1 608*  His  father  was  twenty- 
nine  years  old  when  he  left  Europe  in  1 840, 
for  America,  settling  in  Birmingham*  Henry 
J.  Heinz*  mother,  Anna  Margaretta  Schmidt, 
was  born  in  Kruspis,  a  village  near  Hers- 
feld,  Germany,  where  her  father  was  Burgo¬ 
master,  and  where  her  ancestors,  too,  had 
lived  generation  after  generation*  She  accom¬ 
panied  relatives  to  America  in  1843,  and 
they,  also,  settled  in  Birmingham* 

On  December  4,  1 843,  they  were  married, 
and  on  October  1 1,  1844,  their  first  child, 
Henry  J*  Heinz,  was  born*  In  1849,  when 
he  was  five  years  old,  the  family,  enlarged  by 
two  other  children,  moved  to  Sharpsburg, 
six  miles  up  the  Allegheny  east  of  Pitts¬ 
burgh*  It  was  only  a  village,  and  in  many 
respects  villages  in  that  region  still  had  the 
characteristics  of  frontier  settlements*  The 
Great  West  was  an  unknown  domain  of 
prairies,  buffalo  herds  and  painted  warriors 
who  forbade  entrance  to  the  white  man  on 
pain  of  death*  The  first  locomotive  to  be 
built  in  America  had  been  turned  out  only 
nineteen  years  before — “The  Best  Friend,** 
built  in  the  foundry  at  West  Point*  Morse 


20 


THE  AMERICA  OF  HIS  BOYHOOD 


had  invented  his  telegraph  only  nine  years 
before  Henry  was  born*  Post  offices  were 
few*  Most  of  the  communication  between 
large  cities  was  by  stage  over  post  roads  that 
were  generally  poor,  and  often  frightful* 
The  country  roads  were  roads  only  in  name* 
Corduroy  and  mud  would  make  about  the 
best  description  of  them*  Bottomless  in 
spring  and  in  the  autumn  rains,  gashed  and 
rutted  in  dry  weather,  they  made  any  pro¬ 
tracted  journey  an  adventure  calling  for 
great  exertion  by  men  and  animals* 

Even  a  village  like  Sharpsburg,  so  near  to 
Pittsburgh,  was  isolated  and  self-dependent 
to  a  degree  almost  incredible  to  men  of  this 
age*  Undertakings  that  in  this  day  are  only 
ordinary,  routine  acts,  often  involved  heavy 
labors  and,  sometimes,  risk  of  life.  Thus 
when  Henry  J*  Heinz  was  only  a  small  fellow 
who  today  might  hardly  be  trusted  to  go  far 
on  city  streets  without  an  older  companion, 
he  was  engaged  by  Pennington  Ray,  a  friend 
of  the  family,  to  help  him  in  moving  from 
Freeport  to  Sharpsburg*  It  was  only  23 
miles;  but  the  task  called  for  a  canal  boat, 
which  had  to  be  towed  by  horses  from 


21 


THE  AMERICA  OF  HIS  BOYHOOD 


Sharpsburg  to  Freeport  and  then  back  with 
the  load* 

On  the  way  up,  the  tow-horse  on  which 
the  boy  was  riding  became  entangled  with 
the  tow-line  of  a  heavy  and  swift  mule- 
drawn  canal  “packet”  bound  the  other  way* 
He  slid  from  his  horse  just  in  time*  The 
animal  was  jerked  from  the  bank  into  the 
Canal  and  under  the  passing  boat*  On  the  re¬ 
turn  trip,  after  a  raw,  snowy  November  day, 
he  slipped  on  the  deck  and  had  an  icy  duck¬ 
ing  for  himself*  An  hour  later  it  was  his  turn 
to  drive  the  horses*  The  night  was  wild  with 
cold  rain  and  wind*  The  boat  was  frozen  in 
finally,  and  he  got  such  sleep  as  he  could.  His 
wet  clothing  was  frozen  stiff  in  the  morning* 
He  thawed  it  out  as  well  as  he  could,  and 
then  drove  the  horses  the  rest  of  the  way  to 
Sharpsburg,  where  he  arrived  with  face, 
hands  and  feet  almost  frozen* 

These  conditions  of  life  made  a  rough 
school,  and  an  effective  one*  It  taught  men 
to  use  not  only  their  hands,  but  their  heads, 
and  to  do  it  quickly,  for  errors  of  judgment 
brought  swift,  and  often  fatal,  punishment* 
The  experiences  of  that  life  contributed 


22 


THE  AMERICA  OF  HIS  BOYHOOD 


much  to  his  power  of  leadership  in  after 
years*  He  was  able  to  direct  how  things 
should  be  done, because  he  himself  knew  how 
to  do  them*  He  was  willing,  too,  at  any 
moment  to  do  them*  His  associates  never 
were  surprised  when  their  President  failed  to 
appear  at  his  office*  They  had  learned  to  take 
it  for  granted  that  he  was  somewhere  in  the 
plant  or  the  grounds  with  his  coat  off,  work¬ 
ing  among  the  men  to  get  at  a  better  way  of 
doing  some  task* 

He  delighted  in  such  incidents;  and  his 
personal  satisfaction  in  his  own  skill  and 
knowledge  was  much  the  lesser  part  of  his 
pleasure*  His  great  satisfaction  was  that  he 
had  succeeded  in  passing  on  a  new  idea,  or  in 
promoting  a  new  method,  that  would  make 
for  the  greater  comfort  of  men  as  well  as  for 
efficiency* 

He  was  a  tireless  teacher,  and  his  teaching 
sank  in  and  took  hold  because  it  was  wholly 
free  from  the  sting  of  criticism*  He  taught 
not  because  he  wanted  to  display  superiority, 
but  because  he  was  a  giver*  When  he  dis¬ 
covered  something  useful,  he  could  not  rest 
till  he  had  shared  the  discovery  with  others 


23 


THE  AMERICA  OF  HIS  BOYHOOD 


who  might  benefit*  Whatever  he  knew  he 
wanted  to  pass  on* 

His  method  was  such  that  men  hardly 
realized  that  he  was  teaching  them*  Thus 
one  day  when  lumber  was  being  lifted  to  the 
upper  story  of  a  building  in  the  plant,  he  saw 
that  poor  management  was  causing  each  man 
a  maximum  of  hard  labor,  while  with  better 
direction  one-half  the  number  could  do  the 
work  with  more  ease*  Instead  of  ordering 
the  change  to  be  made,  he  laid  aside  his  hat 
and  coat  and  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  car¬ 
load  as  if  for  a  joke*  It  amused  the  men  to 
see  “the  boss”  take  hold;  and  they  acceded 
with  immense  good  will  when  he  suggested 
after  a  few  minutes :  4  'Do  you  think  we  might 
make  it  easier  by  handling  the  stuff  this 
way?”  After  a  while  he  suggested  a  further 
improvement*  Finally  he  mounted  to  the 
factory  window,  and  began  to  take  the  lum¬ 
ber  in,  demonstrating  without  a  word  how 
one  man  at  that  post  could  do  more  with  less 
exertion  than  it  was  then  causing  two*  When 
he  went  away,  the  car  was  being  unloaded 
as  he  had  intended  it  should  be;  but  not  one 


24 


THE  AMERICA  OF  HIS  BOYHOOD 


of  the  men  had  any  humiliated  sense  of 
having  been  corrected* 

It  was  help,  not  correction,  that  inspired 
his  constant  and  eager  teachership*  He  was 
always  a  student  himself,  and  he  took  it  for 
granted  that  others  were  as  zealous  to  learn 
as  he  was*  He  did  not  want  men  to  recognize 
that  their  improvement  was  due  to  his  guid¬ 
ance*  He  often  chuckled  when  somebody, 
whom  he  had  led  on,  proudly  called  his  atten¬ 
tion  to  a  new  method,  firm  in  the  belief  that 
he  had  originated  it  himself*  In  fact,  he  went 
to  quite  extraordinary  trouble  to  make  men 
believe  that  they  themselves  were  suggesting 
or  discovering  what  he  wanted  them  to  learn* 
It  was  this  kind  of  teaching  that  made  the 
unique  human  organization  which  remains 
vital  today,  so  inspired  by  his  spirit  that  it  is 
as  if  he  were  present  in  the  body*  He  shared 
everything  that  he  knew*  He  shared  it  with 
strangers  on  the  street  as  well  as  with  his 
own  employees,  from  the  farthest  nooks  of 
the  plant  to  the  board  room  where  he  met  his 
fellow  directors*  They  recall  him  today  in 
terms  of  what  they  learned  from  him*  Many 
times  they  ask,  in  face  of  a  new  problem: 


25 


THE  AMERICA  OF  HIS  BOYHOOD 


“What  would  Mr*  Heinz  do?”  They  remem¬ 
ber  his  practice  of  taking  somebody  with  him 
whenever  he  had  something  important  to 
develop,  so  that  the  new  knowledge  should 
be  shared* 

It  was  his  faculty  of  teaching  that  enabled 
him  to  build  up  his  huge  organization  almost 
entirely  from  within*  He  adhered  to  that 
principle  from  the  beginning,  and  remained 
unshaken  even  during  the  era  when  nearly 
all  American  business  men  believed  that  the 
brilliant  results  could  be  gained  only  by  the 
opposite  course  of  hiring  stars*  While  they 
were  competing  hotly  for  outside  talent, 
Henry  J*  Heinz  stuck  to  his  own  men,  and 
promoted  his  own  men*  He  never  hired  stars* 
He  developed  his  own  people  first  because 
they  were  his  people,  and,  second,  because  he 
believed  in  what  the  world  called  “ordinary 
men*”  With  the  untiring  patience,  tact  and 
thoughtfulness  which  are  possible  only  to 
good  will,  he  proved  that  ordinary  men  have 
it  in  them  to  do  many  common  things  better 
than  they  were  done  before,  and  to  do  many 
uncommon  things  too*  There  are  men 
throughout  the  world  today  representing 


26 


THE  AMERICA  OF  HIS  BOYHOOD 


the  Company  in  many  ways  and  with  bril¬ 
liant  success  who  started  under  him  as  boys* 
A  man  who  drove  a  pair  of  mules  for  him 
when  he  began  business  was  in  charge  of  the 
whole  huge  system  of  warehousing  and 
shipping  that  spreads  a  web  over  the  entire 
country,  before  Mr*  Heinz  died*  How  his 
teaching  stuck  is  pointed  by  an  amusing  little 
anecdote*  Some  years  after  his  death  a  man  in 
the  incinerating  department  of  the  plant  was 
instructed  to  change  his  methods  in  some 
minor  detail*  He  sent  back  the  firm  answer: 
“ I  do  this  the  way  Mr*  Heinz  told  me*” 


27 


The  Mother  of  Henry  J.  Heinz 


II 

LESSONS  OF  HOME 


It  was  the  hope  of  his  parents  that  their  first 
born  should  enter  the  ministry*  They  were 
of  that  quietly  devout  European  stock  which, 
without  bigotry  or  intolerance,  handed  down 
from  generation  to  generation  the  conviction 
that  the  Bible  was  the  supreme  guide  for  all 
things,  earthly  as  well  as  spiritual*  It  was  a 
simple  creed,  but  not  narrow,  for  high  in  it 
stood  Charity*  Margaretta  Heinz  taught  her 
son  a  rule  which  he  never  forgot,  and  which 
he  practised  so  constantly  that  it  became  one 
of  those  traits  for  which  men  most  loved 
him*  It  was:  “Always  remember  to  place 
yourself  in  the  other  person's  shoes*"  His 
father  so  recognized  the  duties  of  neighborli¬ 
ness  that  it  is  remembered  of  him  that  he  un¬ 
hitched  his  team  from  his  own  plow  to  lend 
it  to  a  neighbor  whose  need  was  pressing* 

Of  these  parents  he  said  after  the  lapse  of 
sixty  years:  “I  had  an  honest  father,  and  a 
mother  with  a  Christlike  spirit,  in  whom  I 
had  wonderful  faith*  She  could  handle  me 
because  she  knew  how  to  inspire  me;  because 


29 


LESSONS  OF  HOME 


she  knew  what  to  say,  when  and  how*  I 
live  under  the  spell  of  her  many  sayings*” 
There  is  a  card  on  the  walls  of  the  plant 
today,  put  up  by  Mr*  Heinz,  with  the  legend : 
“Not  so  much  what  you  say,  but  how,  when 
and  where*” 

They  sent  him  to  school  under  the  Pastor 
of  the  Lutheran  Church*  Such  a  form  of 
education  was  that  of  many  village-trained 
boys  of  that  time  when  schools  and  school 
teachers  were  not  abundant*  It  fell  naturally 
to  the  minister,  as  an  educated  man,  to  look 
after  secular  education  in  a  small  community 
as  well  as  spiritual  instruction*  The  elder 
Heinz  was  Treasurer  of  the  school,  which 
was  in  the  village  of  Etna,  one  and  one- 
half  miles  away*  These  school  opportunities 
would  be  regarded  today  as  most  meagre,  as 
in  fact  they  were*  But  it  was  the  best  that 
many  country  boys  throughout  North 
America  of  the  fifties  were  getting,  and  it 
was  better  than  many  thousands  of  others 
received*  Its  limitations  were  in  the  variety 
and  volume  of  imparted  knowledge,  rather 
than  in  the  quality*  It  made  only  a  foun¬ 
dation*  But  it  was  a  sound  foundation. 


30 


LESSONS  OF  HOME 


adequate  for  any  superstructure  of  learning 
that  might  be  erected  later* 

T o  the  father  and  mother  at  home,  educa¬ 
tion  was  sacred,  and  they  implanted  in  their 
son  another  trait  that  became  an  integral  part 
of  his  character — a  literally  insatiable  desire 
for  knowledge*  All  through  life  he  wanted 
to  know*  His  temperament  impelled  him  to 
seek  information  from  men  and  from  tangible 
sources  rather  than  from  books*  He  wanted 
to  know  at  first  hand*  He  used  books  to 
round  out  what  he  had  learned* 

He  applied  the  method  to  all  his  pursuits 
— to  art  and  science,  to  business,  to  public 
affairs*  His  associates  in  his  own  business 
and  on  the  many  boards  and  committees  on 
which  he  served,  often  marvelled  at  the  ex¬ 
traordinary  precision  with  which  he  forecast 
business  conditions  and  other  events  of  the 
future*  He  was,  it  is  true,  gifted  with  aston¬ 
ishing  foresight*  But  the  basis  of  his  judg¬ 
ment  and  of  his  acts  was  the  firm  basis  of 
knowledge*  He  had  gone  out  and  learned 
the  facts — and  when  he  went  out  to  gather 
facts,  he  gathered  them  without  letting  his 
own  opinions  obtrude,  and  he  acted  on  them 


3 1 


LESSONS  OF  HOME 


without  letting  his  previous  opinions  sway 
him.  Very  few  men — amazingly  few — pos¬ 
sess  this  fundamental,  vital  principle  of  all 
learning — the  principle  of  recognizing  facts 
whole-heartedly  even  when  they  are  exceed¬ 
ingly  uncomfortable  and  unwelcome.  It 
requires  a  mind  of  absolute  integrity.  To 
recognize  truths,  a  man  must  love  truth. 

To  him,  truth  was  not  just  a  pretty  virtue 
to  be  admired.  He  considered  truth  to  be  as 
vital  to  a  man  as  his  vital  organs.  Tolerant 
himself,  he  tried  to  be  tolerant  even  to  liars; 
but  it  was  quite  impossible  for  him  to  view 
a  liar  as  anything  but  a  moral  suicide. 

One  day  he  accosted  a  new  employee  at 
the  weigher's  platform  weighing  apples.  The 
young  man,  eager  to  impress  his  value  on  his 
employer,  said:  “We  are  getting  you  good 
weight  today, Mr,  Heinz,"  “Fine!"  said  Mr, 
Heinz,  “What  are  you  doing  for  me?"  “Why, 
you  know,  a  quick  eye,  a  quick  hand,  and 
you  can  always  slip  over  a  few  pounds  extra," 
Mr,  Heinz  nodded  and  after  a  moment  asked 
him  mildly  to  go  with  him  to  the  office. 
When  they  arrived,  he  said:  “Do  you  know 
what  office  this  is?  It's  the  cashier's  office. 


32 


LESSONS  OF  HOME 

You  will  be  paid  off,  and  you  will  leave  this 
place  at  once/' 

"But,  Mr,  Heinz!"  cried  the  astonished 
young  man*  "I  was  saving  you  money!" 

"You  were  robbing  a  man  who  was  sell¬ 
ing  to  me,"  said  Mr*  Heinz,  "and  you  were 
robbing  me  of  something  more  precious*" 
Then,  laying  his  hand  on  the  discharged 
man's  shoulder,  he  added:  "There  is  only 
one  way  to  weigh,  or  to  do  anything  else* 
Be  as  square  to  the  other  fellow  as  to  your¬ 
self*" 

He  was  a  square  weigher  in  all  things*  It 
was  one  of  his  secrets  of  learning*  He  weighed 
facts  and  evidence  squarely*  In  a  Presidential 
campaign  many  years  ago,  when  he  was  on 
an  important  committee  of  his  party,  all  his 
fellow  members  were  convinced  that  victory 
for  their  side  was  a  foregone  conclusion,  and 
their  belief  seemed  amply  sustained  by  all  the 
news*  He  believed  it  himself — but  he  did  not 
know *  So  he  went  out  to  learn*  He  sat  down 
and  chatted  with  bricklayers  eating  their 
midday  meal  on  the  street*  He  chatted  with 
others*  He  did  not  debate*  He  asked  men 
what  they  thought,  and  because  he  asked 


33 


LESSONS  OF  HOME 


them  simply  and  frankly,  they  gave  him 
simple  and  frank  answers*  He  returned  and 
warned  his  committee  that  the  party  was  in 
danger  of  defeat*  They  laughed  at  him*  He 
went  again  into  the  highways  and  byways 
and  gathered  more  facts  for  his  note-book* 
That  note-book  was  not  popular  with  his 
associates*  They  declined  to  assimilate  the 
unpalatable  memoranda  of  his  talks*  After¬ 
ward,  when  the  party  was  defeated,  they  said 
that  Henry  J*  Heinz  had  made  a  wonderfully 
good  guess,  or,  if  they  were  more  polite,  they 
credited  him  with  wonderful  political  acu¬ 
men*  What  he  had  done  was  simply  what  he 
always  did*  He  had  gone  out  to  learn,  and 
when  he  had  learned,  he  weighed  the  facts 
squarely,  though  the  scale-beam  tipped  in  a 
way  he  did  not  welcome* 

His  note-book  was  a  constant  companion* 
He  had  an  excellent  memory,  far  superior  to 
that  of  most  men ;  but  he  made  sure  of  every¬ 
thing  that  he  wanted  to  preserve,  by  setting 
it  down*  Sooner  or  later  there  would  arrive 
an  occasion  when  a  memorandum,  sometimes 
made  many  years  before,  would  be  brought 
forth,  to  bear  exactly  on  the  issue* 

4 


34 


LESSONS  OF  HOME 


Another  companion  was  a  tape-measure* 
It  became  a  half-humorous,  half-serious 
habit  of  his  travelling  companions  to  pro¬ 
vide  themselves  similarly,  for  nobody  could 
tell  at  what  moment  it  would  be  required — 
to  measure  the  height  of  a  door,  the  dimen¬ 
sions  of  a  panel,  the  proportions  that  made 
some  object  beautiful*  He  was  a  builder — a 
builder  of  organization,  a  builder  of  prin¬ 
ciples,  a  builder  of  men;  and  in  the  actual 
field  of  building  construction,  he  gave  the 
impulse  its  direct  expression*  He  studied 
architecture  as  he  studied  everything  that  he 
undertook*  Every  journey  was  a  university 
course  for  him* 

As  a  collector  of  art,  he  learned  as  he 
collected,  and  he  grew  with  his  collections* 
When  he  began  to  collect  antique  watches, 
he  knew  nothing  of  the  field*  He  began  by 
buying  a  single  watch  of  a  specific  period, 
without  any  great  value  either  intrinsically 
or  from  the  collector's  point  of  view*  He 
was  paying  to  learn*  He  took  that  watch 
home  and  made  a  study  of  it*  Then  he  turned 
to  books  and  learned  what  specialists  had  to 
say  about  its  period*  So,  piece  by  piece,  he 


35 


LESSONS  OF  HOME 


learned  as  he  collected,  until  in  the  end  he 
possessed  many  envied  prizes  and  ranked  as 
an  expert. 

His  famous  collection  of  carved  ivories 
was  made  in  the  same  way.  To  him  it  would 
have  been  utterly  meaningless  simply  to 
hire  other  men's  eyes  and  knowledge  to  ac¬ 
quire  these  exquisite  things  for  him.  Every 
piece  represented  his  own  patiently  acquired 
knowledge  and  understanding.  He  did  not 
pretend  to  be  an  artist,  and  he  did  not  deceive 
himself  or  others  by  claiming  that  he  had 
the  artist's  native  ability  for  spontaneous 
perception  of  what  was  best.  But  he  loved 
beauty  with  true  reverence;  and  with  the 
same  simple,  straightforward  spirit  with 
which  he  set  himself  to  learn  other  things,  he 
set  himself  to  understand  this  great  thing, 
and  to  understand  it  so  that  he  might  impart 
it  to  others  for  their  pleasure  and  inspiration. 


36 


Ill 

THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 

MARGARETTA  HEINZ,  his  mother,  under¬ 
stood  and  delighted  in  the  growing  things  of 
earth.  She  had  sufficient  household  cares, 
but  she  always  found  time  to  sow  and  plant. 
The  house  in  Sharpsburg  soon  had  a  bounti¬ 
ful  kitchen  garden,  and  its  yield  became  more 
welcome  year  by  year,  for  the  family  in¬ 
creased  till  there  were  eight  children.  It  de¬ 
volved  on  Henry  as  the  eldest  to  help  in  the 
gardening,  and  he  became  imbued  with  his 
mother's  ardor.  So,  without  intending  it, 
she  directed  his  course  of  life  away  from  the 
ministry. 

By  the  time  he  was  twelve  years  old  the 
garden  covered  three  and  one-half  acres,  and 
he  was  already  doing  a  tidy  little  business  in 
marketing  the  spare  produce.  His  father, 
who  was  in  the  business  of  brick-making, 
had  bought  the  land, but  left  its  management 
entirely  to  his  wife  and  son.  When  he  was 
thirteen,  he  was  confirmed  in  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  Etna,  and  as  confirmation  then 
was  equivalent  to  graduation,  his  further 


37 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


education  came  from  what  he  got  at  home 
and  from  what  he  gave  himself.  By  this  time, 
however,  his  practical  turn  of  mind  and  his 
bent  for  business  had  become  so  evident  that 
his  parents  wisely  yielded  their  preference  for 
a  church  career,  and  allowed  him  to  take  the 
course  that  his  impulse  and  his  ability  in¬ 
dicated. 

Thus  a  business  genius  was  saved  to  the 
world,  and  the  work  of  the  ministry  did  not 
suffer.  By  collaboration,  he  did  more  for  the 
church  than  he  might  have  done  by  direct 
service  within  it.  As  a  layman  he  gave  it  the 
best  he  had  of  heart  and  brain  and  means. 
For  all  preachers  he  had  an  open  door,  plenti¬ 
ful  time,  and  usually  a  generous  gift.  He 
liked  their  company  and  their  talk.  He  sug¬ 
gested  texts  and  sermons.  His  warmest  inter¬ 
est  was  always  with  the  struggling  preacher 
and  the  humble  church,  and  he  did  not  permit 
his  assistance  to  be  circumscribed  by  limita¬ 
tions  as  to  creed  or  doctrine.  He  believed  that 
Heaven  was  high  and  wide  enough  to  cover 
many  theological  differences. 

His  genius  for  business  was  not  the 
"genius”  that  directs  itself  to  making  money 


38 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


without  earning  it*  It  was  not  even  the  kind 
that  calculated  too  closely  to  make  sure  that 
a  given  expenditure  of  time  and  labor  was 
not  too  great  for  the  amount  earned*  Thus, 
when  their  own  garden  temporarily  gave  him 
a  little  spare  time,  he  picked  up  potatoes  for 
a  neighboring  farmer,  a  Mr*  Cook,  for  a  wage 
of  twenty-five  cents  a  day  and  board*  This 
man  Cook  knew  the  stimulus  of  a  special 
reward,  so  while  Henry  was  piling  up  wealth 
at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  cents  daily,  he 
offered  three  prizes  to  those  who  picked  up 
the  most  potatoes:  twenty-five  cents,  twelve 
and  one-half  cents  and  six  and  one-quarter 
cents*  There  were  twenty  contestants  in  the 
field,  of  whom  Henry  was  the  youngest* 
He  made  a  good  fight,  but  he  was  outclassed 
by  the  foreman,  who  won  the  first  prize,  and 
by  a  lad  of  eighteen  who  won  the  second* 
However,  he  came  in  third;  and  he  was  so 
proud  when  he  carried  home  the  six  and  one- 
quarter  cents — a  “fi-penny-bit,”  as  it  was 
called — that  he  remembered  it  and  told  of  it 
more  than  half  a  century  afterward* 

He  had  to  learn  to  do  a  little  of  every¬ 
thing.  The  Allegheny  River,  unruly  then  as 


39 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


now,  often  disported  itself  at  high-water 
seasons  by  washing  away  a  part  of  the  family 
garden*  A  family  council  decided  that  the 
only  way  to  protect  it  definitely  was  to  de¬ 
fend  it  with  gravel  piled  deep  and  massive 
enough  to  make  an  embankment*  Henry's 
father  supplied  an  old  horse,  “Baldy,"  and 
a  scraper*  With  these  the  boy,  by  him¬ 
self,  drew  the  great  quantities  of  heavy 
gravel  from  the  lower  reach  of  the  river 
and  piled  it  up  along  the  frontage  of  the 
property* 

With  it  all  he  managed  to  find  time  to 
lend  a  hand  in  his  father's  brick-yard*  At 
first  he  “off  bore"  brick,  and  did  other  tasks 
of  purely  manual  labor*  Later,  after  he  had 
taken  a  course  in  Duff's  Business  College  in 
Pittsburgh,  he  utilized  his  knowledge  of 
bookkeeping  to  keep  the  accounts*  He  came 
to  know  as  much  about  brick  as  he  knew 
about  horse-radish  roots  and  other  parts  of 
his  work;  and  when  anybody  asked  him  in 
after  years  how  he  had  found  time  to  do  so 
much,  he  liked  to  repeat  John  Wanamaker's 
reply  to  a  similar  question:  “Oh,  we  country 
boys  work!" 


40 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


Although  he  did  not  remain  in  the  brick 
business,  he  found  amply  profitable  use  for 
his  knowledge  of  brick  in  his  later  years,  just 
as  he  found  abundant  and  profitable  use  for 
his  early  knowledge  of  horses*  His  many 
building  operations  were  successful  because 
he  had  not  only  made  brick,  but  had  learned 
how  brick  should  be  erected*  The  pleasing 
and  apparently  time-defying  exteriors  of  the 
main  plant  buildings  in  Pittsburgh  are  due 
largely  to  his  own  skill  in  building  and  to 
his  personal  selection  of  all  the  brick  used*  A 
good  job  of  brick-making  or  of  brick-laying 
never  escaped  his  eye*  If  he  saw  particularly 
fine  brick  anywhere,  even  in  a  distant  city, 
samples  of  it  would  be  sure  to  arrive  in  Pitts¬ 
burgh  by  express*  One  of  his  associates  said 
that  according  to  his  observation  the  chief 
use  Mr*  Heinz  made  of  his  office  desk  was  for 
stowage  of  sample  brick* 

It  was  the  same  way  with  horses*  Almost 
all  the  horses  used  by  the  Heinz  institution 
in  all  its  branches  and  activities  throughout 
the  United  States  were  bought  by  himself* 
He  liked  the  task  too  much  to  delegate  it  to 
others*  For  the  horses  to  draw  the  company 


4i 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


wagons,  he  selected  animals  of  uniform 
weight  and  type*  He  initiated  the  idea,  never 
since  violated,  that  every  Heinz  horse  every¬ 
where  was  to  be  of  pure  black  color;  and 
before  the  introduction  of  automobiles  Heinz 
teams  and  wagons  in  every  city  were  the  same 
— the  wagons  enameled  white  with  green 
trimmings,  and  the  horses  black*  They  were 
good  horses,  too*  Among  the  horse-breeders 
and  horse-traders  of  the  country,  he  had  the 
reputation  of  being  as  good  a  horse-buyer  as 
there  was*  He  knew  when  a  horse  was  good, 
and  he  knew  what  it  was  worth*  One  day 
when  a  dealer  sent  him  word  that  he  had  a 
fine  four-hundred-dollar  horse  for  two  hun¬ 
dred  dollars,  Mr*  Heinz  sent  back  the  message 
that  when  he  had  a  four-hundred-dollar 
horse  for  four  hundred  dollars,  he  would  be 
glad  to  see  it* 

He  was  able  to  handle  almost  any  horse, 
and  he  remained  a  horseman  until  the  roads 
were  so  monopolized  by  the  automobile  that 
even  he  could  not  risk  animals  on  them  longer* 
His  skill  with  the  reins,  and  his  serene  con¬ 
fidence  in  what  he  could  do  with  a  horse, 
were  such  that  many  a  man  whom  he  took 


42 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


driving  for  the  first  time  was  equally  relieved 
and  astonished  at  getting  off  with  a  whole 
skin.  Those  who  knew  Mr.  Heinz  better 
knew  that  his  apparently  venturesome 
driving  was  not  reckless.  He  was  fearless 
with  a  horse  as  he  was  with  anything  else 
that  he  understood;  but  he  never  gave  a  horse 
or  an  enterprise  the  chance  to  run  beyond  his 
control. 

One  of  his  fine  horses  was  the  famous 
“Nightshade,”  which,  retired  on  a  pension 
of  abundant  oats,  hay  and  green  pasture, 
reached  the  venerable  age  of  twenty-three  and 
died  only  a  few  days  before  his  old  master. 
Long  after  he  had  ceased  to  use  him,  he  went 
to  look  after  him.  He  never  forgot  any  of 
his  horses.  He  never  forgot  even  old  “Baldy,” 
which  had  hauled  the  scraper  when  he  was  a 
little  lad. 

As  his  early  labors  had  given  him  mastery 
over  horses,  so  had  they  given  him  a  body  of 
sound  health  and  a  muscular  strength  that 
was  concealed  by  his  apparently  slight  figure. 
Among  other  attributes  not  usually  suspected 
in  a  business  man  were  wrists  of  quite  un¬ 
usual  power,  which  were  acquisitions  from 


43 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


his  boyhood  work  in  the  brick-yard*  When 
he  saw  men  handling  brick,  it  was  always 
easy  for  him  to  judge  what  they  were  accom¬ 
plishing*  In  one  case,  as  he  walked  along  the 
street  at  his  Pittsburgh  factory,  he  saw  a 
particularly  husky  chap  to  whom  the  others 
were  pitching  one  brick  at  a  time*  There  was 
a  smile  when,  after  asking  if  he  might  take  a 
hand,  he  laid  aside  his  high-crowned  hat,  his 
trim  coat  and  his  cane*  He  began  by  pitching 
one  brick  at  a  time  slowly,  then  faster  and 
faster  until  his  man  evinced  every  sign  of 
being  as  busy  as  he  wanted  to  be*  Then  he 
suddenly  began  to  pitch  two  bricks  at  a  time* 
“Hey!”  shouted  the  man*  “What  are  you 
trying  to  do?”  “Why,”  said  Mr*  Heinz, 
pitching  faster,  “we  used  to  pitch  them  four 
at  a  time*  Look  out!”  and  he  sent  in  three  at 
a  time*  When  he  walked  off,  the  crowd  that 
had  gathered  to  watch  gave  him  the  cheers 
due  to  championship  form*  He  used  to  say 
with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye:  “When  I  went 
away,  they  were  no  longer  pitching  one  brick 
at  a  time*” 

If  his  abiding  pleasure  in  physical  work 
had  been  simply  due  to  pride  in  his  own 


44 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


personal  fitness,  these  anecdotes  would  have 
little  significance*  Their  deeper  value  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  respect  for  labor  permeated 
his  whole  character*  “The  dignity  of  labor” 
was  a  vital  fact  for  him*  It  was  one  of  the 
greatest  realities  of  his  life,  and  respect  for 
the  laboring  man  was  a  spontaneous  attitude 
that  ruled  all  his  relations  and  dealings  with 
men*  When  he  spoke  to  the  most  obscure 
worker,  performing  the  most  humble  of 
duties,  his  words  and  manner  were  not  dic¬ 
tated  by  policy*  They  were  genuine;  and  in 
this  lies  perhaps  the  most  important  secret 
for  industrial  relations.  Men  will  appreciate 
justice  and  fair  dealing  even  when  they  are 
dictated  only  by  policy;  but  in  that  case 
the  feeling  of  appreciation  is  only  mental*  It 
does  not,  and  can  not,  go  deeper*  Every  man, 
no  matter  what  his  caliber  may  be,  can 
“sense”  good  will  or  the  lack  of  it*  It  can  not 
be  simulated*  It  has  to  be  there,  and  if  it  is 
there,  its  simple,  straightforward  power  is 
worth  all  the  policies  that  ever  were  invented 
or  ever  will  be* 

Mr*  Heinz  was  always  willing  to  put  him¬ 
self  into  the  other  man's  shoes,  and  he  was 


45 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 

able  to  do  it  because  he  had  learned*  He  never 
looked  back  on  his  own  manual  labor  in 
youth  with  any  feeling  that  it  represented  an 
inferior  stage  of  his  life,  and  he  did  not  even 
look  back  upon  it  as  a  stage  that  he  had 
escaped  from,  and  that  was  over  and  done 
with*  It  was  ever  present  in  his  thoughts, 
like  the  keystone  of  an  arch*  It  followed 
naturally  and  inevitably  that  he  thought  of 
his  employees  and  of  himself  in  common 
terms*  He  always  spoke  and  thought  of  the 
Heinz  establishment  as  a  union — “ a  union,” 
as  he  liked  to  put  it,  “of  employer  and  em¬ 
ployee,  one  in  heart  and  effort*” 

It  is  recalled  that  at  one  time  when  a  new 
building  was  being  erected  in  the  plant,  a 
committee  delegated  from  a  building  union 
called  on  him  to  demand  that  the  work  be 
done  by  union  labor*  “I  am  glad  to  see  you,” 
he  said*  “Now  say  just  what  you  think,  and 
IT1  say  just  what  I  think*  We  ought  to  know 
each  other,  and  we  ought  to  understand  each 
other*”  When  they  intimated  that  they  would 
call  a  strike  if  their  demands  were  not  met, 
he  stopped  them  with  a  smile*  “I  don't  think 
we  ought  to  threaten  each  other,”  he  said* 


46 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 

"That  would  be  only  a  quarrel,  not  a  dis¬ 
cussion*  I  know  that  there  are  many  good 
reasons  why  men  feel  that  they  must  or¬ 
ganize*  So  let  us  talk  it  over  with  mutual 
good  will*” 

After  he  had  heard  them  out, he  said:  "All 
right*  I'll  accept  your  point  of  view  on  this 
job*  It's  a  contractors'  job,  and  you  can  go 
to  them  and  tell  them  that  we  have  agreed 
to  make  it  a  union  job*  Now  I  want  you  to 
do  something  for  me*  We  have  a  union  in 
our  own  place  here*  We  think  it's  the  best 
kind  of  a  union — a  union  of  employer  and 
employees*  I'm  going  to  ask  you  to  go 
through  our  plant*  Investigate  it  all  you 
please*  Talk  to  whomever  you  please*  Ask 
them  anything  you  please*  And  then — if  you 
don't  find  anything  to  criticize  in  our  re¬ 
lations,  if  you  can't  find  that  things  would 
be  better  if  the  plant  were  unionized  in  your 
way,  I  am  going  to  ask  you  to  leave  us  alone 
here  to  work  out  our  industrial  relations  as 
we  are  trying  to  do*'' 

The  delegates  took  him  at  his  word*  They 
went  into  every  nook  and  corner*  When  they 
returned  to  the  office,  the  spokesman  said: 


47 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


“Mr.  Heinz,  we  have  had  a  regular  education 
in  what  might  be  done  in  every  industry. 
Our  hands  are  off.” 

It  is  obvious  that  this  was  good,  though 
bold,  tactics.  What  won  the  delegates,  how¬ 
ever,  was  something  bigger  than  tactics.  They 
realized  that  Mr.  Heinz  was  taking  them  at 
their  face  value,  that  he  was  willing  to  trust 
to  their  fairness.  This,  also,  was  one  of  his 
inborn  traits.  He  was  never  afraid  to  trust  a 
man.  He  always  assumed  that  a  man  was 
honest  and  meant  to  do  the  right  thing. 

It  happened  one  time  that  a  carload  of 
supplies  from  a  shipper  of  whom  Mr.  Heinz 
bought  a  carload  a  week  was  reported  as 
showing  a  short  pack  in  every  barrel.  He 
had  various  barrels  opened  and  examined 
them  himself.  “Put  this  whole  carload  into 
the  cellars,”  he  said  “and  hold  it  there  till 
you  hear  from  me.”  He  shook  his  head  when 
his  buyer  wanted  to  complain  to  the  con¬ 
signor.  “No,”  he  said.  “Just  wait.”  He 
simply  refrained  from  sending  the  next  order, 
with  the  natural  result  that  the  shipper  tele¬ 
graphed  anxiously.  Mr.  Heinz  wrote  back 
saying  that  any  time  he  was  in  Pittsburgh 


48 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


he  might  drop  in*  The  shipper  arrived  on 
the  first  train,  and  Mr*  Heinz  took  him  to 
the  storage  place,  and  ordered  the  barrels  to 
be  brought  forward  and  opened*  “Why,  Mr* 
Heinz,”  exclaimed  the  man,  “these  barrels 
aren't  full!  They've  been  packed  dead 
wrong*''  Mr*  Heinz  laughed  and  tapped 
him  on  the  shoulder*  “Remember  you  said 
that,  and  not  I,''  he  remarked*  “I  felt  sure 
you  wouldn't  pack  goods  that  way,  but  I 
wanted  you  to  see  just  what  had  happened, 
so  that  you  could  correct  your  employees*'' 

“Mr*  Heinz,''  said  the  shipper,  “I  will 
never  forget  being  treated  this  way;  all  I  can 
say  is,  that  as  long  as  I  live  you  will  get  my 
best  quality  and  at  a  lower  price  than  I  quote 
to  anybody  else*'' 

In  his  impulse  for  saving  other  men's 
feelings  he  often,  in  fact  habitually,  went  to 
what  many  business  men  might  consider  un¬ 
necessary  trouble*  But  he  never  subscribed 
to  the  tenet  that  business  has  no  time  to  con¬ 
sider  feelings*  Part  of  the  strength  of  his 
organization  was  in  the  fact  that  men's 
errors,  and  even  their  transgressions,  were 
not  dealt  with  in  a  “businesslike”  manner. 


49 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


but  in  the  spirit  of  friendship  and  mutual 
regard*  It  was  another  expression  of  his  re¬ 
spect  for  others,  and  another  application  of 
his  mother's  teaching  about  putting  himself 
into  the  other  person's  shoes* 

This  practice,  which  he  built  into  the  very 
structure  of  the  business  founded  by  him, 
did  not  encourage  laxness,  but,  indeed,  accom¬ 
plished  the  exact  reverse*  The  intense  regard 
for  precision  and  thoroughness  in  all  the  in¬ 
numerable  little  things  of  business,  to  which 
he  trained  his  whole  organization,  remains 
the  creed  of  the  business  today  as  if  he  still 
were  present  in  body,  because  every  indi¬ 
vidual  knew  that  he  could  afford  to  admit 
a  mistake,  as  there  was  no  danger  of  hu¬ 
miliating  rebuke*  In  fact,  Mr*  Heinz  might 
almost  be  said  to  believe  in  mistakes,  so  warm 
was  his  sympathy  for  the  person  who  ac¬ 
knowledged  one  frankly*  His  way  of  getting 
at  it  usually  was:  "Now,  how  would  it  be  if 
we  tried  it  this  way?" 

He  made  it  understood  that  he  considered 
every  man  entitled  to  one  mistake  of  a  kind* 

V 

It  was  the  same  mistake  a  second  time  that 
he  objected  to*  He  went  so  far  as  to  offer  a 


50 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


prize  for  the  man  who  caught  himself  in  the 
most  mistakes  in  a  given  period,  and  had 
the  courage  to  set  them  down  and  read  the 
record  publicly.  The  plan  was  a  great  success. 
The  most  denunciatory  criticism  from  the 
most  ironlike  disciplinarian  could  not  have 
made  such  an  educational  and  disciplinary 
session  as  was  held  when  employee  after 
employee  stood  up  and  told  on  himself.  And 
the  lesson  was  all  the  better  learned  because 
of  the  fact  that  nobody  felt  hurt,  but  that  it 
was  a  lesson  given  in  the  spirit  of  good 
humor. 

One  of  his  associates,  who  is  an  officer 
and  director  in  the  company  today,  started 
in  with  him  as  a  boy.  When  he  was  earning 
$45  a  month  he  made  an  error  that  caused  a 
loss  of  $76.  Instead  of  charging  him  with 
it,  Mr.  Heinz  led  him  to  discover  and  report 
it  himself,  and  then  led  him  on  to  acknowl¬ 
edge  the  seriousness  of  the  mistake  and  to 
volunteer  to  pay  for  it.  “Very  well/'  said 
Mr.  Heinz.  “I  think  you  should,"  and  they 
agreed  on  a  deduction  of  $5  a  month  from 
his  salary.  When  pay  day  arrived,  the  cashier 
handed  him  $45  as  usual.  “Y ou' ve  forgotten 


5  1 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR 


to  take  out  that  $5,”  said  the  lad*  “Oh,  no,” 
replied  the  cashier*  “We  have  deducted  it  all 
right,  and  you  are  going  to  keep  on  having 
it  deducted,  all  right,  till  you  pay  it  up*  But, 
you  see,  Mr*  Heinz  told  us  to  raise  your 
salary  $5  a  month*” 

Nobody  ever  made  the  mistake  of  think¬ 
ing  that  these  traits  meant  softness  of  will 
— or,  at  least,  nobody  made  such  a  mistake 
more  than  once*  He  was  a  man  of  intense 
convictions  and  intense  will  power,  and  when 
at  the  proper  time  he  unleashed  his  forces, 
there  were  few  men  who  cared  to  try  con¬ 
clusions  with  him*  One  of  those  who  did 
try  it,  said  ruefully  afterward:  “Say,  tell 
me!  How  is  it  that  the  old  man  can  kick  the 
gizzard  out  of  a  man,  and  then,  if  he  jumped 
into  the  river,  we'd  all  jump  in  after  him?” 


52 


IV 

EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 

In  his  boyhood  it  had  not  occurred  to  men 
that  the  pursuit  of  the  merchant  might  be 
made  a  branch  of  scientific  public  education* 
The  America  of  his  day  was  not  blessed  with 
any  such  literature  as  we  have  today, dealing 
with  business  and  business  principles*  A  few 
“business  colleges'"  here  and  there  represented 
the  only  attempt  at  tuition,  and  their  chief 
idea  was  that  business  education  meant  a 
course  in  bookkeeping*  The  majority  of 
business  men  would  have  smiled  ironically 
at  the  idea  of  a  business  training  that  involved 
academic  study  of  basic  theories  and  princi¬ 
ples*  The  prevailing  idea  was  that  it  had  to 
be  learned  by  rule  of  thumb;  and  if  men  did 
not  actually  assert  that  it  was  largely  a  matter 
of  hit-and-miss,  most  of  them  assuredly  con¬ 
ducted  it  on  that  basis* 

To  a  certain  extent  this  attitude  was  most 
natural*  Never  before  in  history  had  man¬ 
kind  known  such  a  gigantic  reservoir  of 
natural  wealth,  all  lying  before  every  man's 
eyes,  and  most  of  it  free  to  every  man  who 


53 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


had  the  instinct  of  exploitation.  The  vast 
adventure  of  tearing  open  a  whole  rich  con¬ 
tinent  could  hardly  do  otherwise  than  to 
breed  impatience  with  anything  that  did 
not  savor  of  impetuous,  headlong  action. 
“Yesterday”  and  “Tomorrow”  were  con¬ 
ceptions  to  which  that  eager  young  America 
was  equally  indifferent. 

It  was  inevitable  that  business  men  should 
have  thought  that  ethics  of  business,  as  we 
know  them  today,  were  visionary.  Business 
failures  and  bank  suspensions  were  daily 
commonplaces,  over  which  people  got  ex¬ 
cited  only  in  those  periodic  intervals  when 
they  assumed  catastrophic  proportions.  In 
that  confused  time,  the  first  daily  business 
of  every  man,  as  he  saw  it,  was  to  look  after 
his  own  skin. 

Young  Henry,  ambitious,  and  eagerly 
bent  on  going  ahead,  might  have  accepted 
these  methods  and  made  them  his  own.  If 
the  dog-eat-dog  policy  was  not  actually 
honored  in  his  time,  there  was  at  any  rate 
small  pity  for  the  one  who  allowed  himself 
to  be  eaten.  If  he  had  hung  his  neighbors' 
hides  on  his  fence,  he  would  have  incurred 


54 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


no  odium.  The  phrase  of  the  day,  “a  smart 
business  man/'  was  a  cloak  that  covered 
many  sins. 

But  there  was  no  temptation  to  him  in 
success  gained  on  such  terms.  He  knew  the 
value  of  money,  and  he  knew  the  need  for 
money.  But  even  in  his  boyhood,  when  he 
saved  every  penny,  money  was  not  the  first 
consideration  with  him.  His  parents  had 
taught  him  thrift,  but  not  greed.  They  knew 
nothing  of  get-rich-quick  business.  All  that 
they  knew  was  to  have  horror  of  ill-gotten 
gain;  to  desire  nothing  unless  it  had  been 
fairly  earned;  to  refuse  any  advantage  that 
meant  hurt  to  any  person;  and  to  prefer 
honor  and  a  good  name  to  any  other 
success. 

These  principles  were  part  of  the  boy's 
very  blood.  They  made  him  proof.  He 
founded  his  business  career  on  those  prin¬ 
ciples  from  the  beginning,  because  anything 
else  was  impossible  to  him.  They  were  as 
much  part  of  him  as  his  head  and  hands. 
Years  after  his  vegetable-selling  days  had 
passed,  an  old  grocer  said:  “I  used  to  like  to 
buy  from  Henry.  I  always  paid  him  a  little 


55, 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


more  than  I  paid  anybody  else,  but  what  he 
sold  me  was  not  only  more  satisfactory  on 
the  average,  but  I  never  lost  money  on  what 
I  bought  from  him/* 

He  looked  out  for  his  customers  in  that 
early  day  because  it  was  natural  for  him  to 
do  it*  Without  knowing  it,  he  was  building 
business  on  a  basis  years  ahead  of  his  time. 
He  was  shaping  personal  principles  and 
moral  principles  into  the  corner-stones  of 
business  policy  that  today,  more  than  half 
a  century  later,  are  the  acknowledged  foun¬ 
dations  for  all  business. 

Reviewing  his  career  when  this  book  was 
going  to  press,  one  who  was  close  to  him 
said:  “There  is  one  thing  in  which  he  was 
fortunate  beyond  most  human  beings.  I 
think  that  even  in  boyhood,  he  had  little  of 
the  ordinary  human  weakness  in  the  face 
of  temptations.  In  all  the  years  I  knew  him, 
I  cannot  recall  anything — pleasure,  money, 
comfort  or  fame — that  ever  tempted  him  to 
step  an  inch  from  his  steady  path.  And  I 
think  it  one  of  the  fine  proofs  of  his  human¬ 
ness  that,  though  temptation  meant  so  little 
to  him,  he  still  understood  others  who  were 


56 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


tempted,  and  met  them  with  sympathy  and 
compassion*” 

When  he  was  sixteen,  the  garden  had 
so  grown  that  he  employed  three  or  four 
women  and  developed  a  market  for  three 
deliveries  a  week  to  Pittsburgh  grocers* 
It  was  the  general  custom  to  deliver  fresh 
produce  in  Pittsburgh  between  four  and  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning*  The  farmers  had  to 
pick  the  stuff  the  night  before  and  load  it, 
so  they  could  start  for  market  in  the  small 
hours  of  the  morning* 

Henry  conformed  to  the  custom  for  a  time, 
but  he  could  see  no  sense  in  it*  He  wasn't 
afraid  to  get  up  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morn¬ 
ing,  as  he  had  to,  but  he  failed  to  see  why 
there  should  be  so  much  waste  motion  with 
no  result  except  to  wake  up  all  the  grocers 
in  Pittsburgh  hours  before  their  day's  sales 
could  begin*  When  he  had  thought  it  out, 
he  showed  his  customers  that  they  got  the 
same  vegetables  that  they  might  have  the 
night  before,  and  he  proposed  to  save  them 
early  rising  by  making  his  deli  veries  between 
eight  and  nine  o'clock  at  night*  They  had 
never  heard  of  such  a  thing,  but  he  convinced 


57 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


them  that  it  was  for  their  own  comfort,  and 
he  succeeded  in  bringing  about  his  first  revo¬ 
lution  in  method. 

His  next  thought  was  in  the  direction  of 
specialized  service,  and  his  first  effort  was 
with  one  of  the  family  crops — horse  radish. 
At  that  time,  people  bought  their  horse 
radish  in  the  form  of  the  roots  in  the  market, 
and  grated  them  for  themselves.  It  was  any¬ 
thing  but  pleasant  work.  Many  have  been 
the  tears  shed  in  the  process,  as  the  experi¬ 
enced  well  know.  The  young  gardener  un¬ 
dertook  to  save  the  housewife  both  the  labor 
and  the  tears,  by  grating  and  bottling  the 
product  and  selling  it  in  package  form  ready 
for  use.  It  was  the  germ  from  which  the 
business  of  the  H,  J,  Heinz  Company  as  a 
packer  of  food  products  developed,  A  few 
years  later  he  wrote  out  a  long  memorandum 
— several  thousand  words — describing  the 
cultivation  and  care  of  horse-radish  roots, 
trimming  and  storing,  grating  and  bottling. 
He  noted  on  it  that  it  was  “for  the  benefit 
of  the  younger  men  who  may  succeed  me 
in  that  which  has  cost  much  labor  and 
toil” 


58 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


He  had  not,  however,  yet  arrived  at  the 
point  of  concentrating  all  his  efforts  on  food 
products*  He  was  taking  more  and  more 
part  in  his  father's  business  of  brick-making, 
and  other  business  opportunities  always 
found  him  ready.  Apparently  there  never 
was  a  time,  even  in  his  early  youth,  when 
idleness  had  attractions,  and  he  never  changed 
in  this  respect.  He  knew  how  to  rest,  but 
rest  meant  change  of  occupation,  not  non¬ 
occupation,  He  selected  occupations  that 
represented  play  to  him — art  collection, 
building,  public  service,  travel. 

Among  various  early  ventures  was  a 
winter's  experience  in  the  ice  business.  Ice 
was  selling  at  five  cents  a  pound,  and  was  in 
good  demand  in  Oil  City,  and  his  father 
entered  into  partnership  with  Pennington 
Ray  to  cut  and  store  ice  on  Hemlock  Creek, 
about  fourteen  miles  above  the  town,  Henry, 
then  nineteen,  looked  after  the  business  in 
Oil  City, 

Unluckily  for  them,  two  factors  entered 
— over-production  and  over-competition. 
Jack  Frost,  in  collaboration  with  Hemlock 
Creek  and  all  other  rivers  and  creeks  in 


59 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


Pennsylvania,  produced  an  enormous  ice 
crop.  Everybody  cut  ice  and  tried  to  sell  it. 
Ice  dropped  to  one  cent  a  pound,  and  the 
profits  of  the  ice  business  evaporated.  The 
partnership  was  dissolved,  and  it  fell  to 
Henry  to  drive  four  horses  and  an  empty 
ice  wagon  back  to  Sharpsburg,  some  eighty 
miles  from  Oil  City, 

In  later  years  Mr,  Heinz  often  told  of  that 
trip  with  the  empty  wagon,  not  because  it 
was  important  in  itself,  but  because  it  pointed 
his  never-ending  battle  against  waste.  There 
was  no  man  who  more  hated  waste  of  any 
kind — waste  of  material,  waste  of  time, 
waste  of  human  opportunity.  He  could, 
and  did,  treat  with  equanimity  and  patience, 
losses  large  and  small  that  were  due  to  error 
or  lack  of  judgment  or  other  such  human 
faults.  But  the  hatred  of  waste  was  so  in¬ 
grained  in  him  that  he  often  puzzled  less 
careful  men  by  pausing  in  most  important 
work  to  investigate  and  eliminate  some  petty 
waste. 

To  drive  an  empty  wagon  eighty  miles 
was  a  waste  that  annoyed  young  Henry  just 
as  it  would  have  annoyed  the  older  and 


60 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


richer  Henry*  He  couldn't  find  a  remedy 
before  he  left  Oil  City,  and  he  didn't  find 
one  during  the  first  part  of  the  trip*  But  he 
had  it  before  he  reached  the  town  of  Butler, 
forty  miles  from  Pittsburgh*  He  went  to 
a  produce  merchant  and  said:  “ I  have  no 
money,  but  I  have  an  empty  wagon  that 
I'm  driving  through  to  Sharpsburg*  If 
you  will  furnish  goods  to  carry,  I  will  sell 
them  at  my  destination  and  account  for  the 
proceeds*" 

Perhaps  he  won  the  day  by  gaining  the 
merchant's  faith  in  his  integrity,  rather  than 
by  the  commercial  soundness  of  his  proposi¬ 
tion,  sound  and  sensible  though  it  was*  He 
got  a  load  of  butter,  eggs  and  oats  which  he 
sold,  leaving  the  money  with  a  merchant  in 
Etna  who  was  known  to  both  parties  to  the 
bargain*  He  delivered  his  empty  ice  wagon 
at  Sharpsburg  with  a  profit  of  twenty-five 
dollars  to  pay  for  the  trip*  In  after  days, 
when  instead  of  a  single  wagon  he  had  to  deal 
with  his  own  railroad  cars  in  whole  trains, 
the  very  same  spirit  made  it  impossible  for 
him  to  waste  railroad  mileage,  but  because 
in  that  case  the  savings  were  impressive  in 


6 1 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


amount,  and  because  they  demanded  fore¬ 
sight  and  often  inventive  genius,  men  were 
prone  to  forget  that  at  the  bottom  of  all  these 
efficiencies  was  just  that  hatred  of  waste 
which  he  had  learned  in  his  boyhood* 

By  his  constant  fight  against  waste  in 
little  things  he  inculcated  throughout  his 
whole  organization  a  habit  of  orderliness, 
precision  and  tidiness  that  became  a  really 
powerful  and  dominating  factor  in  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  quality*  When  he  gave  hours,  as 
he  often  did,  to  the  correction  of  an  appar¬ 
ently  trivial  waste  that  did  not  seem  to 
amount  to  more  than  a  few  pennies,  he  did 
it  because  he  perceived  that  it  had  funda¬ 
mental  importance  in  the  whole  conduct  of 
the  plant*  He  always  explained  his  reasons; 
and  thus,  the  employees  of  the  whole  estab¬ 
lishment  learned  to  understand  that  their 
elimination  of  every  small  waste  was  not  for 
reasons  of  pettiness  or  small  economy,  but 
that  it  had  intimate  bearing  on  the  ability 
of  the  Heinz  Company  to  discard  unhesi¬ 
tatingly  any  quantity  of  raw  material,  how¬ 
ever  great,  that  did  not  measure  up  to  the 
standard  set  for  it* 


62 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


He  never  figured  his  time  by  its  money 
value*  He  figured  its  value  wholly  in  terms 
of  what  he  could  accomplish  with  it,  and 
this  same  trait  was  one  that  marked  his 
youth*  Thus  as  he  had  done  his  share  of 
the  garden  work  without  thinking  of  pay, 
he  had  done  his  share  of  work  in  the 
brick-making  establishment  without  pay* 
However,  when  he  reached  twenty-one,  his 
savings  (which  had  been  started  with  the 
wages  he  had  earned  as  potato  picker  for 
the  farmer.  Cook,  and  the  "fi-penny-bit” 
prize)  amounted  to  enough  to  enable  him 
to  purchase  a  half  interest  in  his  father's 
brick  business,  and  his  father  was  glad  to 
have  him* 

One  of  the  first  things  that  the  new  part¬ 
ner  did  was  to  install  heating  flues  and  drying 
apparatus  that  permitted  brick  manufacture 
to  be  done  through  the  winter,  where  till 
then  they  had  been  made  only  in  the  summer* 
It  was  thus  possible  to  accumulate  stock  for 
the  spring,  which  was  the  season  of  active 
demand* 

A  year  later  another  idea  that  had  been 
incubating  in  his  mind  was  brought  to 


6  3 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


reality*  If  men  could  make  money  by  buying 
brick  and  building  them  into  walls,  why 
couldn't  he  build  walls  with  his  own  brick 
and  make  money?  He  took  contracts  for 
the  brickwork  in  several  buildings,  some 
of  which  still  were  standing  years  after  his 
death  to  bear  testimony  to  the  quality  of  the 
brick  and  the  character  of  the  construction* 

He  learned  that  750,000  bricks  were  re¬ 
quired,  at  Flemming  Station  on  the  Ohio 
River  below  Pittsburgh,  and  he  went  after 
the  contract  and  got  it*  It  was  a  job  inde¬ 
pendent  of  the  Sharpsburg  plant,  and  he  had 
a  profit  of  a  thousand  dollars  to  show  for 
the  six  months  which  the  making  of  the 
brick  required*  He  turned  another  profit 
because,  observing  that  the  coal  supply  at 
Flemming  Station  was  fluctuating  and  un¬ 
certain,  he  undertook  to  ship  coal  from  Pitts¬ 
burgh  in  barges* 

In  1 868,  when  he  was  twenty-four  years 
old,  he  formed  a  partnership  with  L*  C* 
Noble  to  manufacture  brick  at  Beaver  Falls, 
Pennsylvania*  This  was  his  first  business 
activity  outside  of  the  family*  Mr*  Noble 
was  to  supervise  the  Beaver  Falls  plant  with 


64 


The  Home  in  Sharpsburg  which  Henry  J.  Heinz  Built  for  His  Father 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 


occasional  visits  by  the  other  partner,  who 
continued  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  busi¬ 
ness  with  his  father,  and  was  also  staying 
right  by  the  horse-radish  enterprise*  He  was 
an  expansionist  constitutionally*  He  could 
not  be  satisfied  to  stand  still*  His  ideas  always 
kept  ahead  of  realization*  At  the  same  time 
they  did  not  become  visionary*  He  was 
enough  of  an  idealist  to  furnish  the  motive 
for  expanding  programs*  He  was  enough  of 
a  realist  to  anchor  his  ideals  to  solid  earth* 
When  he  was  twenty-four,  his  love  for 
building  got  its  first  concrete  expression,  and 
in  a  direction  most  natural  to  him,  because 
it  was  a  structure  typifying  the  family  loy¬ 
alty*  The  elder  Heinz  had  long  wished  to 
revisit  Europe,  and  in  1868,  with  his  busi¬ 
ness  well  established  and  safe  under  his  son, 
he  departed*  Scarcely  had  he  left,  before  his 
son  started  work  on  the  surprise  that  he  had 
planned  to  celebrate  his  home-coming — a 
new  home,  larger  and  more  comfortable 
than  the  home  which  the  family  had  occu¬ 
pied  so  many  years,  and  which  had  become 
crowded  as  the  eight  children  grew  older* 
His  experience  as  a  contractor  stood  him 


65 


EARLY  BUSINESS  VENTURES 

in  good  stead,  for  the  new  residence  that 
he  erected  was  surpassed  by  few  houses  in 
Sharpsburg  at  the  time,  and  still  stands  as 
a  good  house* 

When  the  father  returned,  the  joy  of  the 
home-coming  almost  began  to  dissipate  at 
the  sight  of  the  elaborate  new  house*  “Oh, 
Henry,  Henry V*  he  cried*  “Why  have  you 
done  this?  We  can't  afford  it*  It  will  break 
me  to  pay  for  it*"  The  laughing  family 
crowded  around  him  and  told  him  that  Henry 
had  already  paid  for  it,  and  that  the  money 
had  come  from  the  collection  of  old  accounts 
which  Heinz  senior  had  long  ago  given  up 
as  worthless. 


66 


V 

THE  FIRST  PARTNERSHIP 


THE  year  1869  was  a  notable  year  for  him* 
He  married,  and  he  formed  a  firm  which  be¬ 
came  the  lineal  ancestor  of  today's  Company* 
His  marriage  made  him  doubly  fortunate, 
for  his  bride,  Sarah  Sloan  Young,  brought 
to  his  new  household  what  his  mother  had 
given  to  him  in  the  old — devotion,  faith,  and 
the  understanding  that  knits  a  man's  home 
and  his  career  into  unity,  whole  and  com¬ 
plete*  Like  his  mother,  she  had  a  serene 
courage  in  the  face  of  trouble;  and  trouble 
was  to  come  early  in  their  married  life,  for 
the  United  States  was  approaching  a  period 
of  business  catastrophe  which  engulfed  men 
far  and  wide* 

The  firm  formed  by  Mr*  Heinz  was  a 
partnership  with  his  former  partner  in  the 
brick  business,  L*  C*  Noble,  a  son  of  one  of 
the  chief  families  of  Sharpsburg*  The  con¬ 
cern,  under  the  name  of  Heinz  and  Noble, 
was  formed  to  raise  horse  radish  and  to 
bottle  the  grated  product*  Henry  Heinz  was 
twenty-five  years  old,  and  as  he  had  begun 


67 


THE  FIRST  PARTNERSHIP 


to  learn  the  cultivation  of  vegetable  products 
when  he  was  eight,  it  may  be  said  that 
this  firm  represented  the  first  definite  re¬ 
sults  of  the  patience  and  industry  of  seven¬ 
teen  years* 

His  ambitions  had  grown  with  the  years, 
and  the  partnership  was  formed  with  great 
visions  for  the  future*  He  did  not,  indeed, 
dream  of  such  an  institution  as  it  was  his 
fortune  to  build  ultimately,  but  he  had  the 
absolute  faith  that  a  business  in  food  prod¬ 
ucts  of  unquestioned  quality  could  be  made 
into  a  big  enterprise* 

Despite  this  faith,  and  despite  their  ambi¬ 
tious  hopes,  they  started  on  so  small  a  scale 
that  it  might  have  seemed  as  if  Henry  J*  Heinz, 
instead  of  having  progressed  in  life,  had 
sagged  back  to  his  original  beginnings  in 
boyhood*  The  firm's  operations  began  with 
three-quarters  of  an  acre  cultivated  for  horse 
radish,  and  the  grating,  bottling,  ware¬ 
housing  and  selling  were  conducted  in  one 
room  and  the  basement  of  the  house  from 
which  the  family  had  only  recently  removed* 

This  practice  of  starting  things  on  a  small 
scale  was  one  that  he  adhered  to  in  after 


68 


THE  FIRST  PARTNERSHIP 


years.  It  was  not  due  to  timidity  or  hesi¬ 
tancy,  One  of  his  marked  characteristics  was 
a  courage  that  enabled  him  to  undertake 
ventures  which  seemed  almost  reckless  to 
men  who  did  not  know  the  exactness  and 
completeness  of  the  information  on  which 
he  acted.  But  he  was  never  satisfied  to  do 
anything  until  he  knew  all  about  it,  and  to 
his  simple  and  direct  manner  of  thought, 
the  best  way  to  find  out  was  to  try  it  experi¬ 
mentally,  There  was  nothing  timid  or  hesi¬ 
tating  about  these  trials.  They  were  as 
complete  as  they  could  be  made.  He  adhered 
to  the  principle  long  after  the  H,  J,  Heinz 
Company  had  reached  a  point  where  it  could 
easily  afford  to  venture  directly  on  promising 
enterprises.  If  a  new  method  of  selling,  a 
new  idea  in  advertising  or  other  similar 
changes  were  proposed  and  approved,  he 
made  a  thorough  test  of  them  in  one  limited 
locality  first. 

It  was  this  practice  that  had  much  to  do 
with  establishing  each  of  his  food  products 
solidly  in  public  esteem  almost  as  soon  as  it 
was  put  on  the  market.  He  could  not  be  in¬ 
duced  to  add  a  product  to  the  Heinz  list  until 


6  9 


THE  FIRST  PARTNERSHIP 


every  conceivable  trial  had  been  made  of  it* 
As  the  demand  for  the  original  products 
grew*  and  brought  with  it  a  demand  for 
additional  varieties*  a  stranger  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Company's  directors  might  have  im¬ 
agined  at  times  that  Mr*  Heinz  was  stren¬ 
uously  opposed  to  the  production  of  a  new 
line*  It  might  be  that  he  himself  had  pro¬ 
posed  its  manufacture;  but  between  that  idea 
and  the  actual  production  and  marketing  of 
it*  he  interposed  the  most  elaborate  system 
of  what  might  almost  be  called  destructive 
research  and  criticism*  He  wanted  his  whole 
organization  to  hunt  for  the  weak  spots*  He 
wanted  his  whole  organization  to  know 
all  that  could  be  known  about  any  given 
product  before  he  would  go  further  with  it* 
He  wanted  to  know  that  the  necessary  raw 
material  could  assuredly  be  procured  in  un¬ 
diminishing  quality*  year  after  year*  He 
wanted  to  know  that  his  organization  was 
able  to  make  the  product  better  than  it  was 
being  made  elsewhere* 

After  a  new  product  had  been  completely 
approved  as  to  quality  and  flavor*  and  its 
potential  value  as  an  addition  to  the  list  had 


70 


The  First  Desk  used  by  Mr.  Heinz  in  Sharpsburg,  1869 


THE  FIRST  PARTNERSHIP 


been  satisfactorily  established  within  the 
organization,  as  well  as  by  trial  in  a  selected 
circle  outside,  he  still  did  not  proceed  to  put 
it  on  the  market*  Having  satisfied  himself 
that  it  was  good,  he  wanted  to  learn  how  it 
would  strike  the  public*  So  he  tried  it  out  in 
one  locality,  often  in  only  one  town  or  city* 
He  was  always  willing  to  assume  that  the 
public  might  not  agree  with  him  and  his 
organization  as  to  its  desirability*  He  wanted 
to  learn,  and  he  did  it  with  the  same  spirit 
that  impelled  him  to  chat  with  the  workers 
on  the  streets  to  find  out  what  people  thought 
about  public  questions* 

Once  he  was  assured  that  his  premises 
were  sound,  few  men  were  likely  to  move 
more  quickly  or  to  go  farther  than  he*  He 
would  suddenly,  almost  overnight,  expand 
a  small,  cautious,  local  campaign  into  a 
sweeping  one  that  covered  the  whole  North 
American  continent,  or  that  might  cover 
the  world* 

Usually  his  fellow  directors  were  prepared 
for  these  quick  decisions,  and  approved  of 
them,  no  matter  how  great  an  undertaking 
they  might  involve,  because  he  shared  all  his 


* 


7i 


THE  FIRST  PARTNERSHIP 


ideas  and  thoughts  with  them,  and  kept 
them  informed  to  the  last  detail*  He  had 
none  of  the  vanity  that  induces  many  men 
to  act  as  if  their  ideas  were  mysterious  gifts 
vouchsafed  only  to  unique  minds* 

Sometimes,  however,  his  associates  were 
likely  to  be  startled  by  some  unusually  dar¬ 
ing  plan*  At  such  times,  he  recognized  openly 
that  they  were  doing  their  duty;  and  if  he 
could  not  convince  them  that  his  scheme  was 
sound,  he  frequently  got  them  to  let  him 
carry  it  through  personally,  with  the  under¬ 
standing  that  he  would  bear  the  loss  out  of 
his  own  pocket  if  it  failed* 

The  London  factory  was  established  un¬ 
der  those  conditions*  He  agreed  with  his 
fellow  directors  that  it  would  require  many 
years  and  large  annual  investments  to  make 
it  pay*  But  he  was  sure  that  it  would  suc¬ 
ceed,  and  they  were  not*  Therefore  he  in¬ 
sisted  on  making  it  his  personal  venture*  But 
before  long  his  directors  insisted  on  taking 
their  share,  as  they  had  learned  to  know  that 
the  things  he  was  willing  to  pay  for  invari¬ 
ably  succeeded*  Today  it  is  one  of  the  largest 
and  most  profitable  parts  of  the  H*  J*  Heinz 


7  2 


THE  FIRST  PARTNERSHIP 


Company  business.  He  had  been  willing  to 
pay  for  his  mistake,  if  it  were  one,  but  be 
had  taken  pains  by  long  personal  investi¬ 
gation  in  Europe  to  avoid  a  mistake,  A 
solid  foundation  for  any  enterprise  always 
was  the  most  important  point  in  any  under¬ 
taking. 

The  small  beginning  in  1869  meant  a 
solid  foundation  of  sound  product.  It  meant 
that  he  had  not  undertaken  more  than  he 
could  handle  at  the  start.  It  enabled  him  to 
put  out  the  Heinz  and  Noble  horse  radish 
with  the  personal  knowledge  that  every  bot¬ 
tle  was  as  he  wanted  it  to  be.  It  was  not  long 
before  the  product  had  the  kind  of  demand 
that  he  desired — a  demand  created  by  pur¬ 
chasers,  When  each  day  brought  repeat 
orders,  the  young  firm  was  confronted,  of 
course,  with  the  opportunity  that  has 
tempted  and  undone  many  producers — the 
opportunity  to  turn  out  a  larger  volume  of 
product  at  the  expense  of  the  established 
quality.  But  this  was  no  lure  to  Henry 
Heinz,  Since  boyhood  his  whole  life  and 
character  had  shaped  themselves,  consciously 
and  unconsciously,  on  the  principle  of  moral 


73 


THE  FIRST  PARTNERSHIP 


obligation  that  business  today  recognizes 
under  the  word  “Service.”  In  his  day,  men 
considered  a  transaction  closed  when  they 
had  delivered  the  tangible  merchandise.  He 
had  been  thinking  farther  ahead.  The  mere 
fulfillment  of  the  letter  of  a  contract  was  not 
enough  for  him.  He  wanted  the  consumer 
to  get  the  worth  of  every  penny  that  he  paid, 
and  he  wanted  the  dealer  to  profit,  not  only 
in  cash,  but  in  holding  a  satisfied  customer. 
So  the  firm  of  Heinz  and  Noble  stuck  to  the 
plan  of  making  only  the  amount  of  horse 
radish  that  they  could  make  just  as  they 
wanted  to  make  it;  and  they  increased  their 
output  only  as  they  managed  to  increase 
their  capacity  for  making  it  that  way. 

In  our  time  every  young  beginner  in  busi¬ 
ness  has  learned  that  this  is  the  only  prin¬ 
ciple  on  which  a  permanent  business  can  be 
founded.  But  in  the  period  of  half  a  century 
ago,  only  a  very  few  men  realized  it,  and 
fewer  still  had  the  steady  patience  to  stick  to 
it.  In  that  half  century  tens  of  thousands  of 
business  enterprises  have  been  launched,  often 
on  a  great  scale.  All  have  vanished — all  ex¬ 
cept  those  firms  that  today  can  point  to  a 


74 


THE  FIRST  PARTNERSHIP 


consistent  and  unbroken  practice  of  integrity 
in  product* 

It  was  not  until  1871,  two  years  after 
they  had  started,  that  they  felt  safe  in  en¬ 
larging*  Then  they  took  in  some  more  rooms 
in  the  old  house,  rented  a  small  building 
near  by,  and  added  two  other  prepared  prod¬ 
ucts  to  their  line — celery  sauce  and  pickles* 
A  year  later,  in  1872,  the  business  had  so 
increased  that  a  new  partner,  E*  J*  Noble, 
brother  of  L*  C*  Noble,  was  admitted  to  the 
firm,  which  assumed  the  title  Heinz,  Noble 
and  Company*  The  new  partner  had  a  two- 
eighths  interest,  and  each  of  the  original 
partners  held  three-eighths*  The  horse-radish 
cultivation  was  increased  until  by  1874  the 
three-quarter  acre  patch  had  expanded  to 
twenty-five  acres,  and  to  obtain  the  other 
vegetables  that  they  required,  the  firm  was 
cultivating  one  hundred  acres  of  fertile  Alle¬ 
gheny  River  Valley  land  about  a  mile  above 
Sharpsburg* 


75 


VI 

A  PERIOD  OF  TROUBLE 


EVERY  great  soul  has  its  crown  fashioned 
in  the  furnace  of  suffering  and  sorrow*  The 
lofty  personalities  of  history,  and  the  pio¬ 
neers  and  prophets  of  the  race,  have  been 
tried  by  fire;  their  characters  have  been  per¬ 
fected  through  suffering* 

Four  years  after  the  founding  of  the  part¬ 
nership,  a  black  storm  swept  the  United 
States — a  disaster  which  remains  recorded  in 
history  as  the  Panic  of  1 873*  It  spread  ruin 
far  and  wide,  and  equally  great  were  the  ills 
that  followed  it*  For  years  afterward  its 
effects,  direct  and  indirect,  brought  recur¬ 
rent  business  troubles,  many  of  which  were, 
in  fact,  serious  panics  in  themselves* 

The  young  firm  weathered  the  great 
panic,  and  continued  to  grow  so  soundly 
that  in  1875  a  leased  location  was  taken  on 
Second  Avenue,  Pittsburgh,  and  a  branch 
distributing  warehouse  opened  in  St*  Louis 
under  management  of  J*  D*  Graves,  to  be 
followed  soon  afterward  with  another 
branch  house  in  Chicago* 


77 


A  PERIOD  OF  TROUBLE 


A  new  source  of  supply  of  vegetables  be¬ 
came  imperative*  After  careful  survey  of 
conditions,  an  arrangement  was  made  with 
a  canning  and  pickling  company  at  Wood- 
stock,  Illinois,  which  desired  an  outlet  for 
some  six  hundred  acres  of  cultivated  land* 
On  January  20,  1875,  Heinz,  Noble  and 
Company  contracted  to  take  the  produce  of 
the  tract,  at  the  rate  of  sixty  cents  a  bushel 
for  cucumbers  and  ten  dollars  a  ton  for  cab¬ 
bages*  Under  the  agreement,  L*  C*  Noble, 
representing  the  firm  at  Woodstock,  was  to 
issue  checks,  payable  in  Pittsburgh,  as  the 
crop  came  in  from  the  fields,  and  Mr*  Heinz, 
managing  the  plant  and  business  in  Pitts¬ 
burgh,  looked  after  the  maintenance  of  the 
necessary  bank  funds*  He  had  made  careful 
provisions  for  the  financing  of  an  average 
size  crop,  and  there  was  every  reason  to  an¬ 
ticipate  the  best  results  from  the  venture* 
But  1875  turned  out  to  be  a  year  of  phe¬ 
nomenal  crops*  By  the  latter  part  of  August, 
cucumbers  were  coming  in  from  the  fields  at 
the  rate  of  two  thousand  bushels  a  day,  call¬ 
ing  for  twelve  hundred  dollars  in  daily  pay¬ 
ments  for  that  crop  alone,  to  say  nothing  of 
cabbage  and  other  vegetables* 


78 


A  PERIOD  OF  TROUBLE 


Under  normal  conditions,  Mr*  Heinz, 
whose  credit  in  Pittsburgh  was  excellent, 
could  easily  have  borrowed  the  necessary  ad¬ 
ditional  funds  from  the  banks  to  meet  the  de¬ 
mands  of  the  bumper  crop*  But  it  happened 
that  just  then  another  serious  financial 
disturbance  passed  over  the  land*  Banks 
failed*  Others  could  not  honor  the  checks  of 
their  own  depositors  readily*  The  surviving 
financial  institutions  were  so  desperately  put 
to  it  to  remain  solvent  that  they  dared  not 
lend  a  dollar,  even  on  the  best  security  or 
to  the  most  respected  borrower*  Business 
houses,  far  older  and  more  firmly  established 
than  Heinz,  Noble  and  Company,  were  fail¬ 
ing  on  every  side* 

Great  as  was  his  anxiety  for  the  business 
that  he  had  labored  so  hard  to  upbuild,  his 
anxiety  for  the  maintenance  of  his  unspotted 
credit  was  by  far  the  more  intense  of  his 
worries*  He  wrote  in  his  diary  at  the  time: 

October  27 — “I  have,  by  the  aid  and 
strength  of  God,  saved  the  firm's 
paper  from  protest." 

October  29 — “I  have  been  nearly  crazed 
at  times,  protecting  checks  from 
Woodstock." 


79 


A  PERIOD  OF  TROUBLE 


November  2 — “I  have  two  thousand 
dollars  to  meet  tomorrow,  and  not 
a  penny  to  meet  it  with/' 

The  huge  crop  continued  to  roll  in.  No 
power  could  stay  it.  For  another  month  he 
succeeded,  by  unremitting  effort,  in  meeting 
every  day's  demands.  But  on  December  8 
he  had  reached  the  end  of  all  possible  re¬ 
sources,  and  at  the  same  time  he  succumbed 
at  last  to  an  illness  which  the  strain  and 
agony  of  the  past  months  had  produced.  It 
was  Friday,  and  Saturday  was  pay  day  at  the 
plant.  Before  he  went  to  bed,  he  met  it  by 
borrowing  seven  hundred  dollars  from  his 
wife,  who  advanced  it  out  of  her  own  little 
bank  account  of  seventeen  hundred  dollars 
that  had  been  hers  before  marriage.  He  had 
not  asked  her  before  for  a  penny,  but  he 
asked  her  then;  and  it  was  not  the  least  of 
his  pain  that  he  should  have  to  do  it. 

She  sustained  him  with  bright  courage 
that  never  flagged.  Side  by  side  with  her  in 
bravery  stood  his  mother,  who  repeated  her 
faith  in  him  when  he  said  to  her  from  his 
sick-bed:  “Mother,  I  fear  we  shall  not  be 
able  to  pull  through  the  panic.  You  and 


80 


A  PERIOD  OF  TROUBLE 


The  Christmas  that  followed  close  upon 
the  disaster  was  one  that  he  never  forgot* 
He,  who  so  loved  that  season,  who  so  loved 
to  give  that  even  in  his  poorest  days  he  had 
managed  to  find  little  gifts  for  those  dear  to 
him,  wrote  in  his  diary:  “No  Christmas 
gifts  to  exchange*  Sallie  seemed  grieved,  and 
.cried,  yet  said  it  was  not  about  our  troubles: 
only  she  did  not  feel  well*  It  is  grief*  I  wish 
no  one  such  trials*  I  have  no  Christmas  gifts 
to  make*” 

But  the  family  circle  ringed  him  round, 
unshaken  and  true*  In  accordance  with  the 
family  custom  of  gathering  at  the  old  home 
on  Christmas  Day,  he  and  his  family  arrived 
at  his  mother's  home*  She  gave  him  a  Christ¬ 
mas  gift — a  printed  card  bearing  these  words : 

“May  the  blessings  of  thy  God  wait 
upon  thee,  and  the  sun  of  glory  shine  round 
thy  head.  May  the  gates  of  plenty,  honor 
and  happiness  always  open  to  thee  and 
thine;  may  no  strife  disturb  thy  days,  nor 
sorrow  distress  thy  nights;  may  the  pillow 
of  peace  kiss  thy  cheek,  and  the  pleasures  of 
imagination  attend  thy  dreams;  and  when 
length  of  years  makes  thee  tired  of  earthly 
joys,  and  the  curtains  of  death  gently  close 


82 


A  PERIOD  OF  TROUBLE 


around  the  scenes  of  thine  existence,  may 
the  angels  of  God  attend  thy  bed  and  take 
care  that  the  expiring  lamp  of  life  shall  not 
receive  one  rude  blast  to  hasten  its  extinc¬ 
tion;  and  finally,  may  the  Saviour's  blood 
wash  thee  from  all  impurities  and  at  last 
usher  thee  into  the  land  of  everlasting 
felicity." 

He  received  it  as  a  prophecy  and  a  bene¬ 
diction.  Grieved  at  the  destruction  of  his 
hopes,  and  still  more  deeply  grieved  at  the 
loss  that  had  fallen  on  others,  he  faced  a  new 
future  with  courage  undiminished.  And  as  a 
first  step  he  opened  a  little  book  of  account 
which  he  marked  with  the  inscription  on  the 
front  cover: 

M.  O.  Book  of  Henry  J.  Heinz,  1875 

signifying  that  it  was  a  record  of  his  moral 
obligations  arising  from  the  firm's  failure. 
Although  the  legal  discharge  from  bank¬ 
ruptcy  meant  a  release  from  all  the  debts 
concerned  in  it,  he  entered  the  name  of  each 
creditor  and  the  amount  of  his  claim,  and 
charged  himself  with  the  obligation  of  pay¬ 
ing  the  amount  due  from  himself  personally 
as  a  partner  with  three-eighths  interest  in  the 
concern. 


83 


A  PERIOD  OF  TROUBLE 


Many  years  after  he  had  paid  it  all  off,  a 
friend  came  to  him  and  said:  “Mr*  Heinz, 

the  wagon  builder,  Mr* - is  in  sad  trouble* 

The  Sheriff  is  to  sell  the  furniture  in  his 
home  tomorrow*” 

The  man  had  been  one  of  the  few  creditors 
who  had  shown  hostility*  He  had  made  mat¬ 
ters  as  difficult  for  Mr*  Heinz  as  he  could, 
and  had  indulged  in  bitter  personal  abuse  in 
addition*  “Go  and  buy  it  in,  present  it  to  his 
family,  and  send  me  the  bill,”  said  Mr* 
Heinz*  They  met  on  the  street  shortly  after¬ 
ward*  Mr* - held  out  his  hand  and  said: 

“The  man  whom  I  treated  as  an  enemy  has 
proved  to  be  my  friend  and  saved  me  in  my 
trouble*” 

Thus  ended  one  of  the  most  trying  ex¬ 
periences  of  Mr*  Heinz'  life*  He  constantly 
declared  his  belief  that  mistakes  or  misfor¬ 
tunes  often  are  blessings  in  disguise*  He  him¬ 
self  always  tried  to  realize  out  of  every  bad 
experience  something  that  should  enable  him 
to  guard  against  the  same  happening  again, 
and,  as  he  put  it,  “turn  defeat  into  victory*” 
Many  men  were  dragged  down  never  to 
rise*  He  emerged  from  his  misfortunes 


84 


A  PERIOD  OF  TROUBLE 

with  greater  ambition  than  before*  Cautious 
and  careful  as  he  had  been,  he  practised 
thereafter  a  still  greater  caution,  still  greater 
carefulness — and,  above  all,  he  brought 
from  the  battle  indomitable  determination 
of  will* 


85 


VII 


BUILDING  ANEW 

He  was  thirty-one  years  old  when  disaster 
fell  on  him — a  critical  age  when  failure  means 
to  many  men  that  they  have  suffered  an  ir¬ 
reparable  calamity*  He  had  a  wife  and  two 
children,  and  he  was  penniless,  for  he  had 
turned  everything  of  his  own  over  to  his 
creditors*  But  he  had  a  gift  that  remained 
with  him,  fresh  and  undimmed,  to  the  hour 
of  his  death — a  gift  of  youth*  Through  all 
his  existence  he  looked  toward  Tomorrow 
with  the  interested  spirit  of  a  boy*  So,  though 
the  disaster  grieved  him  bitterly,  his  dismay 
was  for  others  who  had  suffered  through  his 
firm's  failure*  For  himself,  he  not  only  had 
the  courage  to  face  the  necessity  of  beginning 
life  all  over  again,  but  he  lost  no  time  in 
doing  it*  Less  than  two  months  after  the 
failure  of  Heinz,  Noble  and  Company,  while 
still  going  through  the  heavy  labor  and  deep 
tribulation  of  winding  up  its  affairs,  he 
started  a  new  business  in  preparing  food 
products* 


87 


BUILDING  ANEW 


It  was  going  back  to  the  beginning  indeed ; 
for  it  was  again  a  tiny  family  venture  as  the 
original  vegetable  garden  had  been*  His 
brother  John  and  his  cousin  Frederick  Heinz 
each  owned  six  shares  of  stock  in  a  build¬ 
ing  and  loan  association,  worth  altogether 
$  1 6  oo*  With  their  faith  in  him  strong  as  ever, 
they  said:  “We  will  give  you  our  stock*  You 
start  in  business,  and  we  will  work  for  you*” 
He  accepted,  with  the  modification  that  in¬ 
stead  of  working  for  him,  they  were  to  have 
an  interest  in  the  business*  His  wife  had  left 
of  her  own  means  $400  in  the  bank  and  a 
mortgage  on  which  his  old  friend  and  neigh¬ 
bor,  Peter  Prager,  was  willing  to  lend  him 
$iooo*  With  this  total  capital  of  $3000 
the  business  was  launched  on  February  6, 
1876,  under  the  name  F*  and  J*  Heinz,  with 
himself  as  manager,  since  he  could  not  con¬ 
duct  a  business  for  himself  till  the  courts  had 
completed  their  slow  process  of  granting  him 
a  discharge  from  bankruptcy* 

It  was  arranged  that  Frederick  and  John 
should  have  one-sixth  interest  each*  Because 
Mr*  Heinz*  parents  had  lost  so  heavily  in 
endorsing  the  old  firm's  paper,  the  mother 


88 


BUILDING  ANEW 


was  to  have  a  one-sixth  interest*  His  wife 
received  a  one-half  interest,  because  of  the 
money  she  had  lost  in  helping  the  old  firm 
meet  its  obligations,  and  in  consideration  of 
her  share  in  advancing  new  capital* 

When  the  owner  of  the  building  on 
Second  Avenue  which  the  old  firm  had  oc¬ 
cupied,  and  which  had  been  closed  on  a  land¬ 
lord's  warrant  at  the  time  of  the  failure, 
learned  of  the  new  business,  he  went  to  Mr* 
Heinz  and  suggested  that  he  lease  the  house* 
To  his  objection  that  he  did  not  know  if  he 
could  afford  to  rent  such  a  property,  the 
owner  replied:  “You  may  take  the  building 
now  without  rent  until  April  i,  and  then 
lease  by  the  year*"  So  he  rented  the  building 
on  credit*  There  are  men  who  always  have 
credit*  But  he  volunteered  to  spend  for  re¬ 
pairs  an  amount  equal  to  the  rent  to  April  i, 
because  he  believed  in  reciprocity* 

Had  the  new  firm  offered  stock  for  sale 
to  investors,  a  very  short  paragraph  would 
have  been  prospectus  enough  to  name  its 
tangible  assets*  Three  thousand  dollars  capi¬ 
tal  did  not  provide  a  very  impressive  finan¬ 
cial  statement  even  in  the  days  of  smaller 


89 


BUILDING  ANEW 


things  back  in  1876,  But  it  had  greater 
resources*  Many  years  later  Mr*  Heinz  said: 
“It  is  neither  capital  nor  labor  that  brings 
success,  but  management,  because  manage¬ 
ment  can  attract  capital,  and  capital  can 
employ  labor*” 

The  new  firm  was  rich  in  management*  It 
had  a  manager  who  was  a  creator,  a  builder, 
an  economist,  a  trainer  of  men*  He  managed 
men  without  their  knowing  it*  The  note  of 
self-reliance  was  dominant  in  him,  always* 

And  if  the  new  firm  had  little  financial 
capital,  it  had  another,  and  most  precious, 
capital — good  will*  There  is  only  one  way 
to  get  good  will*  It  is  something  that  you 
get  only  by  giving  it*  Henry  Heinz  had  put 
his  good  will  into  all  that  he  had  done  for 
many  years*  Now  it  came  back  to  him*  It 
came  back  in  the  form  of  welcome  from  deal¬ 
ers  who  had  done  business  with  him*  It  came 
back  in  the  form  of  willing  purchases  by  the 
consumers  who  had  learned  to  recognize  that 
the  name  “Heinz”  on  a  package  of  anything 
meant  character* 

Reduced  to  its  concrete  terms,  quality  is 
simply  truth  and  genuineness*  To  a  man 


90 


BUILDING  ANEW 


brought  up  to  love  the  truth,  these  meanings 
became  ingrained*  He  cannot  think  in  other 
terms,  and  he  imparts  them  to  whatever  he 
does*  To  Henry  Heinz  it  would  have  been 
inconceivable  to  make  anything  less  good 
than  the  best  that  he  knew  how  to  make* 
He  said  often:  "Quality  is  to  a  product  what 
character  is  to  a  man*” 

He  abhorred  the  old  legal  maxim,  heard 
with  respect  not  so  long  ago  in  the  law 
courts,  "Caveat  emptor”  (Let  the  buyer 
beware)*  When  he  bought,  he  made  sure  of 
what  he  bought;  but  when  he  sold,  he  be¬ 
lieved  that  it  was  his  duty  to  take  care  of  the 
buyer,  to  protect  him  against  his  own  lack 
of  knowledge,  to  give  him  the  return  that 
he  ought  to  have  for  his  investment*  He  went 
further*  He  realized  always  that  to  sell  a 
man  anything  that  he  did  not  need,  or  more 
than  he  needed,  was  bad  ethics  and  bad 
policy* 

In  the  organization  of  the  young  business, 
Frederick  Heinz  was  placed  in  charge  of  the 
gardening  operations*  He  had  been  trained 
as  florist  and  gardener  in  Germany,  which 
at  that  time  was  famous  for  its  thorough 


9i 


BUILDING  ANEW 


development  of  this  science*  He  knew  soils, 
seeds  and  fertilizers;  he  understood  how  to 
cultivate,  how  to  co-operate  with  the  laws 
of  plant  growth,  and  how  to  gather  crops  at 
their  best*  His  fitness  for  the  work  was  such 
that  he  remained  in  charge  of  it  for  thirty-six 
years,  retiring  in  1912,  when  old  age  at  last 
obliged  him  to  rest*  He  lived  until  1922, 
revered  and  respected  by  all* 

John  Heinz  took  the  position  of  superin¬ 
tendent  of  the  manufacturing  department* 
He  was  of  a  mechanical  bent,  and  invented 
various  devices  of  great  practical  usefulness* 
He  stressed  things  rather  than  people,  so  he 
did  not  devote  himself  to  managing  the 
working  staff*  That  work  was  done  by  the 
manager,  who  always  was  more  interested 
in  people  than  in  anything  else* 

He  held  the  curious  idea — it  was,  indeed, 
accounted  curious  in  those  days — that  good 
work  is  done  only  by  happy,  contented 
workers*  Even  if  he  had  not  had  that  queer 
idea,  though,  he  would  have  striven  to  keep 
his  people  happy,  anyway,  for  he  was  a 
worker  himself,  and  he  always  thought  of 
workers  as  working  side  by  side  with  him. 


92 


BUILDING  ANEW 

rather  than  under  him*  So  it  was  wholly 
spontaneous  for  him  to  be  on  friendly  terms 
with  all  persons  in  the  place*  It  was  spon¬ 
taneous  for  him  to  listen  with  interest  to 
their  recital  of  affairs  at  home,  to  sympa¬ 
thize  with  them  when  sorrow  came  to  their 
families,  to  help  when  help  was  needed* 
There  is  a  placard  on  the  walls  of  the 
Heinz  offices  today  that  expresses  his  belief 
and  practice,  from  the  very  beginning  of  his 
career  when  he  engaged  his  first  employee  to 
the  days  when  the  institution  had  more  than 
six  thousand: 

FIND  YOUR  MAN,  TRAIN  YOUR 
MAN,  INSPIRE  YOUR  MAN,  AND 
YOU  WILL  KEEP  YOUR  MAN. 

He  believed  in  keeping  men;  and  men  did 
not  willingly  leave  him*  Long  after  his 
business  had  reached  extremely  large  pro¬ 
portions,  it  was  his  pride  that  he  knew  every 
individual  in  the  plant  by  name*  He  knew 
their  family  life,  he  knew  how  many  children 
they  had,  he  visited  them  when  there  was 
illness,  and  he  was  always  ready  for  a  plain. 


93 


BUILDING  ANEW 


man-to-man  discussion  of  any  points  that 
they  might  raise  about  work  or  method* 

If  this  had  been  done  as  a  matter  of  mere 
astute  and  enlightened  business  policy,  it 
might  not  have  carried  far*  It  certainly 
would  not  have  built  such  an  organization 
as  he  succeeded  in  building*  As  time  went  on, 
and  he  became  a  man  prominent  in  com¬ 
merce  whose  advice  was  sought  eagerly  by 
other  business  men,  he  thought  much  about 
industrial  relations,  and  contributed  many 
thoughts  to  American  industry*  But  he 
never  discovered,  nor  has  anybody  else  ever 
discovered,  a  better  way  to  make  good  in¬ 
dustrial  relations  than  the  way  he  picked, 
half  a  century  ago — the  union  of  heart  and 
head,  with  the  heart  never  last* 

It  was  this  that  made  men  want  to  stay 
with  him  even  in  the  beginning  when  he  had 
only  hard  work,  and  small  reward,  to  offer* 
He  held  clever  men  who  looked  ahead  with 
restless  ambition,  and  he  held  simple  people 
who  looked  for  nothing  further  than  the 
tasks  for  which  they  had  been  hired*  From  the 
top  of  today's  organization  down  through 
all  levels  are  people  who  began  with  him  as 


94 


Henry  J.  Heinz 


Howard  Heinz 


Sebastian  Mueller 


J.  N.  Jeffares 


Clifford  Heinz 


W.  H.  Robinson 


Charles  Heinz 


H.  C.  Anderson 


N.  G.  Woodside 


E.  D.  McCafferty 


The  Board  of  Directors  of  H.  J.  Heinz  Company,  1919 


BUILDING  ANEW 


youngsters*  The  Board  of  Directors  is  com¬ 
posed  largely  of  men  who  started  under  him 
as  boys*  The  First  Vice-President  and  Gen¬ 
eral  Manager,  the  Third  Vice-President,  who 
is  in  charge  of  the  company  finances,  the 
Treasurer,  the  Secretary  and  the  Assistant 
Secretary,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Pitts¬ 
burgh  factory,  and  many  others  in  high 
positions,  all  started  with  Mr*  Heinz  in  his 
early  days* 

In  the  plant  are  many  whose  parents 
worked  for  him*  One  girl  whom  he  employed 
in  his  small  beginnings  not  only  remained 
with  him  throughout,  but  one  by  one,  as 
they  became  old  enough,  brought  in  her  five 
sisters  whom  she  was  supporting*  Mr*  Heinz 
used  to  like  to  say  that  between  them  they 
raised  her  family;  and  it  delighted  him  to  tell 
how  they  all  married  from  the  institution,  and 
how,  in  his  latter  years,  he  had  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  their  children  taking  their  places* 

In  charge  of  the  many  hundred  girls  em¬ 
ployed  in  the  main  plant  is  a  wonderful 
woman — wonderful  for  the  indefatigable 
energy  and  enthusiasm  that  belie  her  seventy- 
odd  years;  wonderful  for  her  influence  over 


95 


BUILDING  ANEW 


the  girls;  wonderful,  even  in  that  institution, 
for  the  loyalty  and  love  that  she  bears  for 
the  man  who  founded  it*  She  is  known  to 
all,  high  and  humble,  by  the  affectionate 
title  of  just  “Aggie,”  She  was  employed  by 
Mr,  Heinz  in  1874,  After  some  years  of 
service,  she  married  and  went  west.  When 
her  husband  became  ill,  they  returned  to 
Pittsburgh,  and  he  went  to  see  them.  Know¬ 
ing  that  her  husband  could  not  live  long,  he 
said  to  her:  “Remember  that  your  old  friends 
are  your  friends  still,  and  be  sure  that  we  will 
save  you  from  any  hardships,”  She  has  been 
a  member  of  what  he  used  to  call  “the  Heinz 
family”  ever  since,  A  short  while  before  his 
death  he  met  her  on  the  street  and  said: 
“Aggie,  you  and  I  are  growing  old,  I  know 
you're  strong.  I'm  strong,  too.  But  I  don't 
walk  to  business  any  more.  We  have  to  save 
ourselves  a  little,”  That  day  he  gave  orders 
that  one  of  the  company  motor  cars  was  to 
take  her  to  and  from  the  plant  every  day 
thereafter. 

The  up-building  of  the  new  business  in¬ 
volved  many  other  factors  besides  organiza¬ 
tion,  As  a  business  man,  Mr,  Heinz  had 


96 


BUILDING  ANEW 


extraordinary  talents,  and  he  brought  many 
original  and  great  improvements  into  the 
work  of  distribution  and  selling.  He  knew 
what  to  make,  how  to  make  it,  and  how  to 

f 

sell  it.  He  knew  how  to  buy.  He  had  genius 
for  finance.  But  the  story  of  the  human 
organization  is  placed  first  here  because  it 
was  the  thought  that  was  always  first  in  his 
mind — first  when  he  started  in  1869,  and 
first  when  he  was  the  captain  of  an  enormous 
institution. 


97 


The  Main  Plant  at  Pittsburgh  Built  Up  by  Henry  J.  Heinz 


VIII 


THE  BUSINESS  RECORD 

XHE  history  of  the  business  after  1876  may 
be  divided  into  three  periods — the  period 
1876  to  1 888,  in  which  year  the  firm  name 
became  H*  J*  Heinz  Company,  the  period 
following  to  1905,  when  the  partnership 
form  was  changed  to  the  corporate  form 
under  the  same  name,  and  from  1905  to  the 
present  time* 

During  the  years  immediately  following 
1876  the  establishment  grew  only  as  its 
manager  felt  satisfied  to  make  a  new  step 
forward*  With  all  his  untiring  energy,  which 
made  him  an  indefatigable  worker,  he  still 
had  a  remarkable  underlying  patience.  To 
outside  observers  his  acts  sometimes  seemed 
paradoxical,  because  they  did  not  understand 
that  he  utilized  both  these  qualities  of  his* 
He  moved  quickly  when  it  was  time  to  move 
quickly*  He  moved  slowly  when  it  was  best 
to  do  so*  The  men  who  grew  up  with  him 
knew  that  when  it  came  to  doing  anything 
swiftly  and  with  every  pound  of  driving 


99 


THE  BUSINESS  RECORD 


force,  he  was  easily  the  leader  of  the  whole 
organization.  But  he  saw  no  utility  in  bustle 
for  the  sake  of  bustle,  or  in  doing  something 
merely  that  there  should  be  “something  do¬ 
ing,”  He  was  absorbed  in  building,  not  in 
fireworks. 

Therefore  he  had  unshakable  patience 
for  withholding  action  until  the  correct 
principle  for  the  act  had  been  established. 
This  was  his  sole  concern  in  the  face  of  any 
problem.  “The  worst  mistake  you  can 
make,”  he  used  to  say  to  those  under  him, 
“is  to  let  immediate  convenience  or  comfort 
dictate  a  makeshift  solution  for  any  trouble¬ 
some  problem.  Get  at  the  fundamental  prin¬ 
ciple  involved,  and  settle  your  problem  on 
that  basis,  and  no  other.  The  problem  itself 
is  nothing  to  worry  about,  no  matter  how 
big.  In  fact,  the  bigger  the  problem,  the 
easier  it  is  to  see  the  principle  on  which  it 
ought  to  be  settled.” 

This  same  logic  was  behind  that  other 
apparent  paradox  in  his  character  which  led 
this  man,  who  was  ready  at  any  moment  to 
undertake  huge  undertakings  without  a 
tremor,  to  lay  incessant,  daily  stress  on  the 


ioo 


THE  BUSINESS  RECORD 


little  things  of  life  and  business,  and  espe¬ 
cially  of  production.  Nothing  was  little  to 
him  when  it  involved  a  principle;  but  he  had 
no  patience  with  the  petty  mind  that  labors 
over  petty  details.  One  of  his  favorite  illus¬ 
trations  was:  “The  trouble  with  most  men 
is  that  they  are  looking  all  around  for  nickels 
that  are  scattered  about  them,  when  just 
ahead  of  them  is  a  Twenty  Dollar  gold 
piece.” 

He  had  that  exceedingly  rare  talent  which 
is  talked  of  so  glibly  as  if  it  were  common — 
genius  for  detail.  This  so-called  “genius  for 
detail”  means  first  of  all  the  genius  to  know 
what  details  are  important.  There  were 
many  things  that  seem  most  important  to 
the  general  type  of  business  man,  to  which 
he  paid  no  attention  at  all.  Office  routine 
was  non-existent  to  him.  His  oldest  asso¬ 
ciates  can  not  remember  that  he  ever  spent 
twenty  consecutive  minutes  at  detail  desk 
work.  He  could  rarely  be  induced  to  listen 
to  an  elaborate  financial  statement.  But  he 
would  spend  hours  in  the  plant  with  a  group 
of  workers  over  some  seemingly  trivial  detail 
in  the  handling  of  food  products.  Anything 


IOI 


THE  BUSINESS  RECORD 


connected  with  that  work  was  vitally  im¬ 
portant  to  him,  no  matter  how  “little”  it 
might  seem  to  others* 

He  had  true  genius  for  finance;  but  Money 
never  meant  to  him  what  Production  meant* 
He  was  a  producer  first  and  foremost*  The 
fruits  of  the  earth  meant  something  actually 
sacred  to  him*  He  had  reverence  for  them* 
There  was  nothing  connected  with  them, 
from  the  infinitesimal  seed  to  the  harvest, 
that  was  little  to  his  mind;  and  so  intense 
was  this  conviction  that  he  succeeded  in  im¬ 
buing  his  entire  organization  with  the  same 
sense*  The  tiny  organization  of  1876  and 
the  huge  one  that  he  lived  to  see — all  were 
inspired  by  that  dominant  regard  for  the 
product  of  the  earth  as  something  precious* 
So,  though  the  years  following  1876  saw 
a  rapid  growth,  it  still  was  a  growth  gov¬ 
erned  by  patience*  He  had  the  patience  to 
increase  production  only  as  he  could  train 
workers  to  produce  as  he  wished  it*  He  had 
the  patience,  and  instilled  some  of  it  into  his 
sales  staffs,  to  wait  for  a  man's  business  till 
it  could  be  obtained  on  a  principle  that  meant 


102 


THE  BUSINESS  RECORD 


permanence*  He  had  the  patience  to  assure 
quality  by  building  up  the  source  of  sup¬ 
ply — the  land  and  its  methods  of  agriculture* 
It  was  not  a  wish  to  exploit,  or  ambition  for 
increased  possession,  that  led  to  continual 
expansion  of  land-holdings  in  every  part  of 
the  continent,  and  in  foreign  lands*  It  oc¬ 
curred  step  after  step  as  his  standard  for  a 
certain  crop  demanded  that  it  be  raised  and 
gathered  under  the  conditions  that  he  con¬ 
sidered  necessary* 

When,  in  1888,  he  took  over  the  interest 
of  his  brother  John,  who  wanted  to  go  west, 
and  became  by  title  what  he  had  been  in  fact 
for  many  years,  the  head  of  the  firm,  he  was 
forty-four  years  old,  and  he  might  have  ac¬ 
counted  himself  as  a  man  who  had  arrived* 
His  business  was  highly  prosperous*  He  held 
an  honored  place  in  financial  and  commer¬ 
cial  life*  Under  date  of  1887  he  had  been 
able  to  record:  “For  years  the  paper  of  the 
house  has  been  passing  over  the  counters  of 
the  banks  without  an  endorser  or  collateral*” 
He  had  reached  the  point  where  he  was  able 
to  contemplate  the  purchase  of  a  stately 
home  in  the  city  that  had  known  him  as  a 


THE  BUSINESS  RECORD 


poor  boy.  He  might  well  have  felt  that  he 
had  reached  his  goal. 

But  prosperity  did  not  mean  a  goal  to 
him.  He  had  no  goal,  in  the  sense  that  he 
ever  set  himself  a  mark  at  which  he  would 
be  content  to  stop.  Living  was  his  goal,  and 
his  business  meant  to  him  an  inseparable  part 
of  life  and  its  duties.  So  his  successes,  finan¬ 
cial  and  otherwise,  made  no  difference.  He 
went  on,  finding  each  new  day  a  new  and 
absorbing  adventure;  and  in  the  thirty-one 
years  between  1888  and  his  death  in  1919, 
he  reared  an  institution  that  made  the  suc¬ 
cess  of  1888  seem  almost  tiny,  and  whose 
story  is  like  the  story  of  a  complete  life 
itself. 

Incorporation  was  decided  on  in  1905 
because  the  business  had  reached  a  magni¬ 
tude  that  made  the  change  desirable  and 
advantageous.  From  time  to  time  new  part¬ 
ners  had  been  admitted,  and  other  partners 
had  retired  or  died.  Among  the  latter  was  his 
mother,  who  had  long  been  called  “Mother 
Heinz”  by  all.  It  was  felt  that  in  place  of 
the  termination  of  a  partnership,  and  the 
necessary  reorganization,  there  was  needed 


THE  BUSINESS  RECORD 


the  perpetuity  of  existence  which  the  corpo¬ 
ration  form  provides* 

Under  this  change,  the  existing  partners 
became  the  stockholders  of  the  new  com¬ 
pany:  Henry  J*  Heinz;  his  cousin,  Frederick 
Heinz;  his  son,  Howard  Heinz;  his  brother- 
in-law,  Sebastian  Mueller,  and  two  old  as¬ 
sociates,  W*  H*  Robinson  and  R.  G*  Evans* 
Mr*  Heinz  became  the  first  president  and 
held  that  office  till  death* 

The  change  in  form  wrought  no  change 
in  spirit,  purpose  or  ideals*  It  still  was  a 
“family”  enterprise*  It  remained  an  institu¬ 
tion  of  direct  personal  relations  from  top  to 
bottom*  When  its  form  assumed  that  of  a 
corporation,  it  was  of  that  kind  which  never 
ceased  to  excite  the  admiration  of  England's 
great  jurist,  Lord  Coke,  when  he  referred  to 
it  as  “an  intellect  without  decline,  a  body 
without  death,  a  soul  with  a  purpose  that 
ever  inspires*” 

When  on  December  20,  1919,  a  few 
months  after  his  death,  the  company  com¬ 
memorated  his  career  and  fifty  years  of  busi¬ 
ness  progress  with  a  banquet  given  by  the 
Board  of  Directors  to  the  employees,  and 


THE  BUSINESS  RECORD 


when  the  speakers*  list  contained  such  names 
as  Judge  Joseph  Buffington  of  the  U*  S*  Cir¬ 
cuit  Court  of  Appeals,  William  C*  Sproul, 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  Harry  Wheeler, 
President  of  the  United  States  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  and  Charles  M*  Schwab,  Chair¬ 
man  of  the  Board  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel 
Corporation,  there  were  given  the  following 
statistics  of  the  organization  that  Mr*  Heinz 
had  reared: 

Employees  ******  6,523 

Harvesters  of  crops  we  use  *  *  1 00,000 

Branch  Factories,  including  one 
each  in  Canada,  England  and 
Spain  *******  25 

Pickle  Salting  Stations .  *  *  85 

RawProductReceivingStations  87 

Railroad  Cars  Owned  and  Op¬ 


erated  .  .  .  * 


258 


Carloads  of  Goods  Handled 
19^9*  *  *  *  *  « 


17,01 1 
1 00,000 


Acres  to  Grow  our  Crops  * 
Salesmen  ****** 


952 


Branch  Offices  and  Warehouses  5  5 

Agencies  in  all  the  Leading  Commercial 


Centers  of  the  World. 


106 


THE  BUSINESS  RECORD 


We  own  and  operate  our  own  Bottle 
Factory,  Box  Factories  and  Tin  Can 
Factory,  as  well  as  our  own  Seed 
Farms, 

And  the  policy  of  this  great  enterprise 
today?  It  is  as  Mr,  Heinz  stated  it  when  a 
group  of  financiers  proposed  to  buy  it,  offer¬ 
ing  the  argument  that  he  had  worked  all  his 
life  and  should  “cash  in” — get  a  good  big 
price  and  enjoy  the  leisure  to  which  he  was 
entitled.  It  was  an  alluring  proposal  as  they 
outlined  it.  He  heard  it  all  out,  and  answered 
promptly: 

“I  do  not  care  for  your  money,  neither  do 
I  or  my  family  wish  to  go  out  of  business. 
We  are  not  looking  for  ease  or  rest  or  freedom 
from  responsibility,  I  love  this  business. 
Your  talk  of  more  money  and  less  responsi¬ 
bility  means  nothing  to  me.  To  stop  work 
is  death — mentally  and  physically.  This 
business  is  run,  not  for  my  family  or  a  few 
families,  but  for  what  we  call  the  Heinz 
family — the  people  who  make  our  goods 
and  sell  them.  The  Heinz  policy  is  to  work 
for  a  better  business  rather  than  a  bigger 


107 


THE  BUSINESS  RECORD 

business;  to  make,  if  possible,  a  better  prod¬ 
uct,  and  to  make  better  people  as  we  go  along* 
We  are  working  for  success,  and  not  for 
money*  The  money  part  will  take  care  of 
itself*” 


108 


IX 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 

In  what  has  been  written,  many  of  the 
characteristics  of  Mr*  Heinz  appear*  Some 
he  had  in  common  with  other  men,  but  his 
personality  had,  in  words  applied  to  another, 
“its  own  distinctive  tang*”  Although  his 
figure  was  not  tall  in  stature,  he  had  person¬ 
ality  plus*  No  one  ever  asked,  “Is  he  any¬ 
body  in  particular?”  He  was  somebody  in 
particular — all  over  and  all  the  time. 

No  person  who  ever  met  him  in  even  the 
most  casual  way  could  fail  to  perceive  his 
genial  disposition*  He  loved  a  smile*  Once 
he  taught  the  value  of  a  smile  in  an  unusual 
way*  A  young  man,  bright  and  with  char¬ 
acter,  occupied  a  position  that  brought 
him  into  contact  with  a  great  many  people 
who  called  at  the  office*  But  he  could  not 
smile*  Mr*  Heinz  looked  around  the  estab¬ 
lishment,  found  a  young  man  who  could 
smile,  and  made  him  assistant  to  number 
one.  He  said  to  the  head  of  the  department 
that  number  two  did  not  have  the  ability  to 


109 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


do  the  work,  but  his  smile  would  attract,  and 
number  one  would  do  the  work*  At  the  end 
of  the  month  the  salary  of  number  two  was 
advanced,  and  number  one  wondered  why 
he  had  not  received  this  mark  of  favor*  When 
an  opportunity  came  to  explain  to  the  dis¬ 
appointed  young  man,  Mr*  Heinz  said,  “ I 
can  afford  to  pay  for  his  smile*  It  is  worth 
something  to  me  to  have  someone  in  the 
office  who  can  meet  strangers  with  a  smile*” 
The  news  spread  through  the  place  that  Mr* 
Heinz  was  advancing  salaries  for  those  who 
could  smile*  Smiling  became  popular*  “It's 
good  business,”  said  he,  “to  employ  men 
who  smile*” 

By  nature  and  training  he  was  democratic* 
He  admired  simple  things  and  simple  ways* 
He  had  love  for  what  are  known  as  the 
“plain  people*”  To  them  he  was  always  at¬ 
tracted  and  attached*  He  realized  that  with 
them  there  was  the  greater  opportunity  to 
help  them  to  do  the  things  that  would 
broaden  their  outlook,  widen  their  vision, 
and  lift  them  up  to  the  appreciation  of 
higher  ideals  and  finer  aspirations*  He  was 
never  happier  in  Christian  work  than  when 


1 1  o 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


associated  with  a  congregation  poor  in  re¬ 
sources  and  few  in  numbers*  The  great  con¬ 
gregation,  with  influential  membership  and 
large  means,  did  not  afford  an  equal  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  helpfulness — and  to  help  some¬ 
one  who  needed  help  was  a  purpose  he  kept 
constantly  in  view* 

He  would  listen  to  suggestions  from  the 
humblest  source*  An  office  boy  was  made  as 
free  to  approach  him  as  his  partners.  He 
always  had  time  to  listen,  and  he  never  dis¬ 
missed  a  suggestion,  even  though  it  was 
valueless  on  its  face,  without  discussing  it 
with  the  one  who  made  it*  He  had  the 
hospitable  mind;  was  ready  to  receive  an 
idea  from  anyone,  peer,  employee  or  stranger* 
He  had  the  power  to  adapt  ideas  to  his  busi¬ 
ness,  as  few  men  have* 

For  what  is  usually  known  as  “Society” 
he  had  little  inclination*  But  he  loved  social 
intercourse  and  he  made  his  home  the  place 
of  many  informal  dinners,  where  charming 
friendship  held  sway*  There  was  nothing 
exclusive  about  him*  His  accessibility  was  a 
characteristic*  He  denied  himself  to  no  one 


1 1 1 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


having  a  just  claim  on  his  time*  To  the  presi¬ 
dent  of  a  large  corporation,  or  to  the  humble 
rural  Sunday-school  teacher,  he  was  equally 
cordial  and  considerate*  The  onlooker  could 
not  detect  any  difference  in  his  reception  of 
the  mighty  and  the  humble*  He  had  a  great 
respect  for  a  human  being  simply  because  he 
was  a  human  being* 

He  went  to  great  lengths  to  keep  a  man 
who  had  promise,  or  whose  character  could 
be  improved;  but  he  evinced  no  weakness 
toward  those  whose  characters  were  proved 
to  be  bad.  Thus  one  of  his  branch  managers, 
after  serious  misconduct  due  largely  to  drink, 
was  warned  that  repetition  would  entail  im¬ 
mediate  discharge*  He  repeated  the  offense* 
Mr.  Heinz  instructed  the  sales  manager  to 
dismiss  him  at  once*  “His  wife  and  child  are 
in  the  hospital,  and  he  is  penniless/' pleaded 
the  sales  manager*  “Dismiss  him  at  once!" 
repeated  Mr*  Heinz*  Then,  when  he  saw  that 
his  order  was  understood  and  accepted  as 
imperative,  he  said:  “That's  business*  The 
other  matter  is  charity.  Draw  the  necessary 
money,  and  look  after  the  wife  and  child*" 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


Though  he  held  a  recognized  position  as 
one  of  the  active  fighters  against  the  evil  of 
drink,  and  though  he  insisted  on  sobriety  in 
those  whom  he  employed,  he  made  it  clear  to 
them  that  he  demanded  it  as  a  matter  of  good 
business  conduct,  and  not  because  he  took  it 
on  himself  to  dictate  the  personal  habits  of 
other  men.  Men  who  knew  of  his  deep 
religious  zeal  often  expected  when  they 
first  entered  into  business  relations  with  him, 
that  he  would  preach  to  them,  and  otherwise, 
perhaps,  endeavor  to  regulate  their  spiritual 
attitude*  But  the  same  simple  regard  for 
other  men's  rights  and  feelings  that  governed 
him  in  other  relations  governed  him  in 
this,  his  deepest  conviction*  He  respected 
other  men's  creeds,  other  men's  beliefs,  and 
even  their  disbeliefs;  and  he  was  especially 
thoughtful  of  this  in  the  case  of  those  on 
whom  he  might  most  easily  have  exerted 
some  pressure* 

He  had  utter  courage,  physical  and  moral* 
He  had  the  courage  as  a  business  man  to 
make  his  religion  and  religious  ethics  a  part 
of  business*  He  had  the  courage  as  a  church¬ 
man  to  make  tolerance  a  part  of  his  religion* 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


The  fear  of  criticism  never  moved  him*  No 
fears  ever  did*  He  was  afraid  of  being  wrong* 
but  of  nothing  else*  Once  he  was  convinced 
that  a  given  course  was  right*  he  could  not  be 
turned  from  it* 

When  he  was  convinced*  his  conviction 
became  an  enthusiasm  that  burned  with  a 
vital  flame*  It  was*  indeed*  like  a  white  heat 
that  fused  all  his  organization  to  one  pur¬ 
pose*  So  intense  was  it  that  few  men  could 
stand  up  against  it*  Opposition  was  half 
defeated  before  it  asserted  itself*  Yet*  though 
he  had  such  personal  force*  he  tried  always 
to  win  other  men  to  his  way  rather  than  to 
dominate  them*  “Don't  you  think  we'd  bet¬ 
ter  do  so-and-so?"  was  his  habitual  way  of 
appeal. 

There  was  one  exception*  He  would 
neither  debate  nor  compromise  in  any  mat¬ 
ter  of  moral  principle*  On  such  a  point  he 
was  a  Caesar*  His  fist  smashed  down  on 
desk  or  table*  and  no  man  dared  to  contra¬ 
dict  or  even  to  argue* 

He  was  a  fighting  man  by  nature*  He 
loved  a  contest,  a  hard  tussle*  a  battle*  But 
he  had  trained  himself  to  be  a  peacemaker* 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


Everywhere — in  committees,  on  boards  of 
directors,  in  social  service  activities,  in  public 
meetings  where  ideas  and  interests  were  bit¬ 
terly  opposed — men  said  that  when  Henry 
Heinz  arose  there  would  be  a  stilling  of  dis¬ 
cord*  He  could,  and  did,  become  stirred  to 
great  angers;  and  no  man  with  one  experi¬ 
ence  of  these  willingly  incurred  another* 
But  he  had  so  inculcated  in  himself  the  habit 
of  peace  that  again  and  again  he  maintained 
it  in  the  face  of  bitter  aggravation* 

Of  this  acquired  treasure  of  inner  peace 
he  made  a  power*  He  made  it  a  power  not 
only  for  himself,  but  for  winning  men  and 
holding  them  to  him,  for  helping  and 
strengthening  them*  In  his  organization  to¬ 
day  one  can  hear  many  stories  of  how  he,  so 
well  capable  of  giving  battle,  conquered 
other  men  not  by  outfighting  them,  not  by 
answering  blow  with  blow,  but  with  his 
peace* 

Among  his  employees  was  one,  his  coach¬ 
man,  who  was  noted  throughout  Pittsburgh 
for  his  amazing  and  utter  fidelity*  His  de¬ 
votion  to  Mr*  Heinz  was  so  deep  and  com¬ 
plete  that  it  is  no  figure  of  speech  to  say  that 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


he  would  at  any  time  have  given  his  life  for 
the  man  whom  he  was  proud  to  call  his 
master.  Yet  in  an  earlier  period  this  man  had 
been  feared  because  of  a  temper  whose  fury 
knew  no  bounds.  The  story  of  how  he  was 
conquered  illustrates  the  method  that  made 
Mr.  Heinz  successful  with  his  employees. 

One  day,  in  one  of  his  sudden  furies,  this 
coachman  struck  a  horse  with  a  shovel.  Mr. 
Heinz  happened  to  be  at  home  that  day,  and 
all  who  knew  his  love  of  horses  expected  a 
storm.  He  controlled  himself,  and  busied 
himself  with  some  other  things  about  the 
place,  until  he  was  quite  sure  that  the  coach¬ 
man  would  know  of  his  presence,  and  be 
concerned  as  to  what  was  going  to  happen 
to  him.  The  man  was  nearly  sick  with  an¬ 
ticipation,  and  at  last  in  the  afternoon  his 
employer  walked  into  the  stable  and  said, 
with  a  smile:  “Albert,  I  have  been  wanting 
to  tell  you  how  I  liked  your  team  on  Sunday ; 
your  horses  never  looked  better.  They  were 
shining.” 

The  man  was  dumb  with  amazement  and 
hung  his  head,  for  that  was  not  what  he  had 
been  expecting.  Mr.  Heinz  continued:  “I 


1 1 6 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


was  proud  of  that  team.  Everything  was 
right  about  it.  The  harness  was  perfect. 
Albert,  I  have  always  felt  that  you  were  one 
of  the  best  coachmen  in  the  city.” 

The  coachman  drew  a  breath  of  relief  and 
began  to  raise  his  head.  Then  Mr.  Heinz 
stepped  close  to  him,  put  his  hand  on  his 
shoulder  and  said:  “Now,  Albert,  I  want 
to  talk  with  you  about  a  personal  matter — 
about  a  little  thing  that  I  know  must  cause 
you  a  great  deal  of  concern.  Temper  is  ab¬ 
solutely  essential  in  any  real  man.  I  like 
temper;  but,  if  it  is  not  controlled,  it  is  a 
destructive  force.  Now  I  want  to  plan  with 
you  how  we  are  going  to  work  out  a  method 
of  controlling  your  temper.” 

The  tears  that  came  to  the  man's  eyes 
were  better  to  Mr.  Heinz  than  words. 

“Oh,  how  can  you  forgive  me?”  he  asked. 
“I  was  sure  I  was  going  to  be  discharged. 
I  never  realized  before  how  serious  a  handi¬ 
cap  a  bad  temper  was,  and  I  promise  that  I 
will  control  it  hereafter.” 

Although  all  with  whom  he  dealt  knew 
that  they  might  appeal  to  his  forbearance, 
his  talent  for  handling  men  was  such  that 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


they  understood  clearly  that  it  meant  no 
laxness  of  discipline*  He,  himself,  had  so 
made  discipline  a  part  of  his  own  life  that 
it  was  inevitable  that  he  should  make  it,  as 
he  did,  a  supreme  factor  in  building  up  and 
governing  his  organization*  He  insisted  on 
discipline;  but  he  maintained  it  as  he  built 
up  other  factors  of  the  institution — by  mak¬ 
ing  men  understand  it*  They  knew  that  he 
did  not  want  them  to  fear  him,  but  that  he 
was  a  man  to  be  most  thoroughly  feared  if 
occasion  was  given  to  him* 

Thus  there  were  details  of  business  dis¬ 
cipline  whose  infraction  he  would  never  treat 
with  equanimity  or  forbearance*  Anything 
connected  with  the  handling  of  the  prod¬ 
uct,  from  raw  material  to  the  package,  had 
to  be  done  just  so*  Anything  affecting  the 
credit  of  the  institution  was  equally  a  matter 
of  inviolable  discipline*  Delay  in  paying  any 
obligation,  even  though  it  were  only  a  short 
or  accidental  delay,  was  intolerable  to  him* 
His  organization  still  remembers  an  occasion, 
though  it  was  many  years  ago*  He  happened 
to  be  in  one  of  the  factory  buildings  at  the 
moment  when  the  pay-roll  money  was  due* 


1 1 8 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


He  waited,  watch  in  hand,  for  exactly  five 
minutes*  Then  he  dashed  across  the  court¬ 
yard  to  the  offices,  and — well,  as  said,  they 
remember  it  still* 

As  a  small  boy  he  had  learned  to  be  punc¬ 
tilious  in  meeting  obligations  and  keeping 
promises*  He  often  told  the  following  story: 

“On  one  occasion  my  father  borrowed  a 
small  sum  from  an  acquaintance,  because 
there  was  no  bank  in  the  village*  He  promised 
to  repay  it  on  a  Saturday*  On  Friday  he  told 
my  mother  that  he  must  hurry  out  to  settle 
the  debt*  'Why/  said  my  mother,  'you  said 
it  was  due  tomorrow/  'Margaret/  said  my 
father,  'you  know  that  when  I  say  that  I  will 
pay  on  a  given  day,  I  always  pay  the  day 
before/” 

Once  Mr*  Heinz  saw  a  man  turning  from 
the  cashier's  window  and  folding  up  an  in¬ 
voice*  He  hurried  over  and  asked  the  cashier 
if  he  had  paid  the  bill*  “No,”  was  the  reply* 
“We  didn't  have  the  money,  and  he  was 
in  no  hurry*”  “That  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  matter,”  said  Mr*  Heinz*  “It's 
our  business  to  pay  every  bill  that  is  due 
the  moment  it's  presented*  Go  out  the  next 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


time,  if  necessary,  to  borrow  the  money  from 
a  bank;  but  get  it,  and  pay  what  we  owe/' 

Prompt  pay  was  an  impulse  of  his  charac¬ 
ter*  He  was  ready  at  any  time  to  fulfill  an 
obligation,  and  in  fact  did  so  many  times 
when  it  meant  loss  that  might  have  been 
avoided  by  a  small  delay.  But  prompt  pay 
was  also  recognized  by  him  as  one  of  the  best 
business  builders.  He  never  made  the  blunder 
of  believing  that  any  gain  of  value  came  from 
holding  on  to  money  to  the  last  possible 
moment.  His  definition  of  prompt  pay  was 
“Living  Credit."  He  knew,  and  proved,  that 
a  reputation  for  prompt  payment  gained 
important  advantages  in  price,  delivery  and 
discounts. 

In  the  currency  panic  of  1908  his  first 
step  was  to  borrow  very  large  sums,  though 
he  did  not  actually  need  the  funds  to  meet 
any  obligations.  He  used  them  to  build  up 
the  company's  bank  balances  all  over  the 
country,  so  that  there  could  be  no  difficulty 
in  getting  cash  in  any  amount,  if  needed. 
The  interest  that  he  had  to  pay  on  these  “un¬ 
necessary"  loans  was  nothing  to  him  when 
compared  with  the  value  of  maintaining 


1 20 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


spotless  credit*  He  said  it  was  the  cheapest 
kind  of  good  insurance* 

There  is  here  another  illustration  of  the 
extraordinary  duality  of  nature  that  en¬ 
abled  him  to  attend  to,  and  take  concentrated 
pleasure  in,  all  the  countless  little  things  of 
production,  day  after  day,  and  yet  never  let 
any  amount  of  detail  obscure  the  big  thing* 
T o  him  the  big  thing  always  seemed  the  easi¬ 
est  thing  to  do*  “Anybody  can  see  the  big 
things/'  he  used  to  say*  “But  some  day 
somebody  will  get  a  big  salary  in  this  insti¬ 
tution  for  doing  nothing  except  to  look  after 
the  little  things*" 

Most  men  who  were  to  take  on  them¬ 
selves  the  mounting  responsibility  for  the 
innumerable  details  of  work  in  such  a  busi¬ 
ness  as  that  of  handling  delicate  and  perish¬ 
able  food  products  would  find  it  a  heavy 
load  to  carry*  He  did  it  through  more  than 
half  a  century,  with  never-failing  zest  and 
vigor,  and  yet  never  did  he  miss  seeing  “the 
instant  need  of  things"  when  a  big  and  dar¬ 
ing  action  was  to  be  undertaken*  But  be¬ 
cause  during  that  half  century  he  had  built 
an  organization  imbued  with  his  own 


1 21 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


conscientious  regard  for  little  things,  he 
could  conceive  the  big  thing  in  a  big  way, 
with  the  confidence  that  he  could  trust  its 
execution  in  detail  to  the  men  he  had  trained* 
So  there  was  the  paradox  that  the  same 
man  who  would,  and  did,  spend  an  hour  in 
lecturing  his  organization  about  waste 
would,  in  the  next  five  minutes,  direct  the 
spending  of  thousands  of  dollars  for  some 
good  object*  "All  the  money  necessary  for  a 
useful  purpose,  but  not  a  cent  for  waste/' 
might  have  been  one  of  his  mottoes* 

He  had  vitality  for  work  that  seemed  in¬ 
exhaustible*  His  apparently  slight  physique 
deceived  men  who  did  not  know  that  he  had 
a  very  considerable  amount  of  muscular 
strength  as  well  as  a  sound  constitution*  His 
activity  was  such  that  those  who  were  closely 
associated  with  him  cannot  remember  him 
except  as  moving  about,  quickly,  incessantly 
alive,  rarely  sitting  down,  and  then  only  till 
some  new  thought  or  errand  started  him  off 
again  in  a  march  through  the  office  depart¬ 
ments  or  a  long  journey  through  the  huge 
plant*  As  may  be  inferred,  he  was  a  tireless 
walker*  He  made  no  cult  of  health,  but  he 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


valued  it*  His  simplicity  and  frugality  of 
diet  were  a  part  of  his  natural  simplicity  of 
life,  and  not  due  primarily  to  considerations 
of  hygiene*  But  he  knew  how  to  live  sanely, 
and  he  tried  to  do  it* 

He  did  not,  however,  try  to  conserve  en¬ 
ergy*  He  seemed  to  thrive  on  expending  it, 
and  he  never  drained  it,  for  he  displayed  as 
much  vital  force  in  the  last  year  of  his  life  as 
if  he  were  a  young  man*  It  was  this  abound¬ 
ing,  apparently  inexhaustible,  vital  energy 
that  enabled  him  on  his  busiest  day,  in  the 
midst  of  pressing  engagements,  to  give  his 
whole  attention,  and  his  whole  hearty  per¬ 
sonal  interest,  to  an  acquaintance  whom  he 
might  meet  by  chance* 

This  busy  man — one  of  the  genuinely 
busy  men  of  America — who  could  not  find 
time  enough  in  any  day  or  in  all  lifetime  for 
all  that  he  wanted  to  do — always  had  time 
to  stop  to  cheer  somebody  on  his  way*  Es¬ 
pecially  was  this  the  case  with  children*  His 
love  for  them  was  so  complete  and  wide  that 
it  gathered  all  children — his  own  and  every 
waif  on  the  street — in  one  great  embrace  of 
affection*  T o  say  that  he  never  passed  a  child 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


on  the  street  without  speaking  to  it  seems 
like  saying  too  much;  yet  many  in  his  insti¬ 
tution  declare  that  they  cannot  remember 
that  he  did.  At  any  rate,  it  had  to  be  a  des¬ 
perately  important  errand  that  would  pre¬ 
vent  him  from  stopping  at  least  a  moment 
to  pat  a  child  on  the  head  and  give  it  a  little 
token. 

In  his  pockets,  in  his  desk  at  the  office,  in 
his  desk  at  home,  he  maintained  a  little  stock 
of  gifts — pictures,  books,  illuminated  cards 
— for  them,  “He  loved  children  more  than 
any  man  I  ever  knew/'  says  one  of  his  fellow 
directors,  “I  never  saw  him  happier  than 
when  he  was  doing  some  such  thing  as  help¬ 
ing  a  lot  of  kids  shoot  off  fireworks  on  the 
Fourth  of  July  or  celebrating  some  other 
holiday.  And  they  loved  him.  He  could  win 
the  confidence  of  any  one  of  them.  The  way 
children  used  to  come  to  the  plant — you 
know  the  Heinz  establishment  is  always 
open  to  visitors — you'd  think  that  all  the 
youngsters  in  Pittsburgh  had  passed  the 
word  around.  And  I  don't  think  that  he  ever 
saw  a  child  without  giving  it  something," 
“If  he  met  children  in  the  streets  near  the 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 


plant,”  says  another,  “his  first  question 
would  be:  'Do  your  people  work  here?' 
Often  he  would  come  into  a  directors'  meet¬ 
ing,  his  face  radiant,  to  repeat  what  some 
child  had  said:  how  a  father  or  mother,  or 
both,  or  other  relatives,  had  told  at  home  of 
the  way  the  plant  was  conducted,  and  of 
their  pleasure  in  the  work/' 

A  man  who  could  fight,  but  who  pre¬ 
ferred  to  shake  hands;  an  intensely  practical, 
shrewd  man  who  was  not  afraid  of  senti¬ 
ment;  a  man  who  demanded  punctilious 
fulfillment  of  duty  from  everybody,  and  yet 
who  forgave  inferior  service  if  the  spirit  was 
right;  that  was  Henry  Heinz.  None  insisted 
more  on  discipline,  and  none  ever  was  more 
quickly  and  implicitly  obeyed.  But  he  won 
service  by  being  loved,  not  by  being  feared. 

All  his  instincts  ran  to  cheerful  informal¬ 
ity  of  intercourse.  Yet  he  was  a  man  with 
whom  no  person  would  dream  of  taking  a 
liberty.  He  did  not  carry  a  sense  of  dignity 
around  with  him.  His  character  was  his 
dignity.  He  was  so  unconscious  of  it,  and 
yet  so  secure  in  its  possession,  that  he  did  not 
have  to  panoply  himself  with  the  armor  of 


125 


I 


ELEMENTS  OF  HIS  PERSONALITY 

place  and  rank*  He  could  afford  to  be  sim¬ 
ply,  endearingly,  intelligently  human,  and 
he  was*  He  could  afford  to  offer  every  man 
good  humor  and  kindliness,  and  he  did* 
Human  kindness  was  not  a  mere  trait*  It 
was  himself*  It  was  his  constant  thought  to 
give  pleasure  to  others*  He  lived  a  truth 
which  often  found  expression  from  his  lips: 
"We  get  out  of  life  what  we  put  into  it*” 
He  put  into  it  love  and  service  and  kindness, 
and  he  took  out  of  it,  in  unstinted  measure, 
compensation  in  kind* 


1 2  6 


X 

AN  ENDURING  STRUCTURE 

By  achieving  an  eminent  business  success,  he 
demonstrated  that  thorough  ethics  and  thor¬ 
oughly  sound,  practical  business  methods 
are  wholly  compatible*  A  still  greater  fact 
which  he  demonstrated  was  that  such  ethics, 
which  seem  at  first  sight  intensely  individual 
and  personal,  can  be  infused  throughout  a 
whole  great  organization,  and  can  become  so 
deeply  implanted  that  they  are  self-perpetu¬ 
ating* 

A  cardinal  article  of  his  faith  was  that  men 
can  be  trusted,  that  most  men  would  rather 
do  right  than  wrong*  He  perceived  that  the 
reason  they  did  not  adhere  to  their  best  incli¬ 
nations  was  that  they  were  afraid  they  could 
not  succeed  that  way  in  business* 

His  big  deed  of  human  leadership  was  to 
show  men  that  they  did  not  need  to  be  afraid* 
He  showed  them  that  the  belief  that  business 
demanded  ruthlessness  and  the  cutting  of 
moral  corners  was  a  superstition  as  foolish 
as  it  was  evil*  He  built  a  business  that  proved 
it*  From  the  time  when  he  gathered  around 


1 27 


AN  ENDURING  STRUCTURE 


him  his  first  associates  he  inspired  them  with 
the  same  faith,  and  so  imbued  them  with  it 
that  they  in  turn  inspired  the  new  men  di¬ 
rectly  under  them* 

The  institution  that  he  founded  stands 
as  a  triumphant  justification  of  this  tenet 
that  principles  and  ethics  are  the  imperish¬ 
able  factors  of  business  organization  and 
permanence*  In  the  fifty-four  years  of  its 
existence  there  necessarily  have  been  many 
changes  in  individual  membership;  but 
always,  now  as  in  the  beginning,  the  organi¬ 
zation  has  gone  on  unchanged,  with  succes¬ 
sors  ready  to  conduct  it  on  the  same  lines* 

Mr*  Heinz  never  picked  men  simply  to 
work  under  him*  He  picked  them  to  work 
with  and  after  him*  He  studied  youngsters  to 
find  among  them  chiefs  of  the  future*  Long 
before  they  themselves  dreamed  of  such  pro¬ 
motion  he  had  picked  men  to  be  his  partners, 
and  was  training  them  with  infinite  care  and 
patience*  Reference  already  has  been  made 
to  the  fact  that  most  of  the  present  officers 
of  the  Company  and  members  of  the  Board 
of  Directors  are  men  who  began  with  him 
in  their  youth,  and  that  throughout  the 


1 28 


Experience  and  Getting  Experience — Henry  J.  Heinz  and  His  Three  Sons 


AN  ENDURING  STRUCTURE 


organization  in  all  parts  of  the  country  men 
whom  he  trained  as  lads  are  holding  im¬ 
portant  positions* 

He  did  not  content  himself  with  training 
them  simply  as  direct  successors*  He  trained 
them  to  train  their  successors,  to  build  on 
and  on,  in  his  faith  that  “heart  power  is 
better  than  horse  power,”  and  that  an  insti¬ 
tution  which  strives  primarily  to  win  the 
hearts  of  its  employees  can  safely  count  on 
the  best  work  of  their  heads  and  hands* 

Thus  he  succeeded  in  transmitting  his 
spirit,  as  living  today  as  if  his  mortal  body 
were  present*  It  is  vivid  in  the  minds  of  many 
men  who  believe  as  he  did,  who  would  not 
conduct  business  in  any  other  way,  and  who 
echo  every  word  of  his  business  policy* 

Much  of  what  is  being  done  in  the  Heinz 
institution  is  today  accepted  by  the  world  as 
a  part  of  wisdom  in  industrial  relations*  But 
it  was  not  so  when  Mr*  Heinz  began  it*  He 
was  a  pioneer  in  what  is  now  called  “welfare 
work”  among  employees*  He  did  not  call  it 
that*  He  did  not  call  it  by  any  name*  He  did 
not  do  it  to  head  off  unrest*  In  his  mind  it 
was  not  connected  with  wage  questions  or 


AN  ENDURING  STRUCTURE 


other  labor  problems*  He  did  it  because  he 
thought  it  was  right;  because  he  thought  of 
himself  as  a  fellow  worker,  and  knew  the 
priceless  value  of  willing  spirit — and  by  will¬ 
ing  spirit  he  meant  that  the  employer's  spirit 
must  be  as  willing  as  that  of  the  employee* 

So  he  was  among  the  first  employers  in  the 
country  to  provide  such  comforts  as  dining¬ 
rooms,  locker-rooms  and  dressing-rooms* 
His  intense  insistence  on  meticulous  neatness 
and  cleanliness  in  everything  pertaining  to 
food  products  led  him  to  originate  many 
innovations  in  industry*  Instead  of  trying 
to  enforce  it  merely  by  rigorous  orders  and 
discipline,  he  offered  facilities  and  conveni¬ 
ences  as  his  share  of  the  duty,  and  thus  made 
it  a  matter  of  mutual  benefit*  He  inaugu¬ 
rated  the  idea  of  providing  clean,  fresh 
working  uniforms  for  the  women,  a  system 
which  had  the  advantage  for  them  of  saving 
their  street  garments,  in  addition  to  giving 
them  more  comfort  while  at  work*  He  in¬ 
stalled  a  manicurist  department,  which  so 
appealed  to  the  natural  womanly  desire  for 
well-tended  hands  that  they  took  pride  in 
the  inspections  and  other  exacting  rules  that 


130 


( 


AN  ENDURING  STRUCTURE 

are  laid  down  for  all  who  handle  material  in 
the  plant* 

A  “first-aid”  station  for  service  in  case  of 
accidents  as  well  as  rest  and  recreation  rooms 
were  early  features*  He  soon  went  further* 
He  told  the  employees  that  if  it  paid  to  give 
them  aid  in  the  plant  when  they  were  in¬ 
jured,  he  thought  it  would  pay  the  institu¬ 
tion  to  give  them  aid  in  general  matters  of 
health,  and  he  offered  them  a  trained  nurse 
and  a  doctor*  To  this  medical  establishment 
there  was  soon  added  a  dentist,  who  does 
dentistry  work  free  for  all  employees*  Mr* 
Heinz  was  an  early  discoverer  of  the  loss  of 
time  and  suffering  due  to  defective  teeth* 

In  every  way  he  tried  to  make  the  sur¬ 
roundings  bear  out  his  idea  that  the  working 
day  should  be  happy*  Paintings  and  other 
objects  were  installed  to  satisfy  the  love  for 
beauty*  The  cheerfulness  and  freshness  of 
growing  things  were  brought  to  the  plant 
through  window  boxes  of  flowers  and  in 
other  forms*  He  tried  to  make  the  place  a 
place  to  live  in  as  well  as  work  in* 

Years  before  such  undertakings  were  con¬ 
sidered  as  anything  but  visionary,  he  built 


131 


AN  ENDURING  STRUCTURE 


an  auditorium  in  the  plant,  for  lectures, 
motion  pictures,  dramatic  performances, 
singing  and  music,  as  well  as  for  dancing  and 
other  amusements  initiated  by  the  employees 
themselves* 

It  was  his  regular  custom  to  come  before 
the  employees  in  the  auditorium  and  discuss 
working  conditions,  changes  of  method, 
such  as  hours  of  employment,  the  general  con¬ 
ditions  of  business  throughout  the  country, 
and  other  topics  bearing  on  the  mutual  in¬ 
terest*  During  the  war  his  inspiring  talks 
in  the  campaigns  for  raising  various  war 
funds  led  them  to  go  “over  the  top”  in  such 
form  that  they  were  always  one  hundred 
per  cent  in  their  Red  Cross  and  other  contri¬ 
butions* 

He  was  one  of  the  first  employers  to  in¬ 
troduce  free  life  insurance*  Both  the  recrea¬ 
tional  and  the  educational  ideas  were  among 
those  that  took  practical  form  years  ago*  A 
swimming  pool,  a  gymnasium  and  a  roof 
garden  are  in  the  plant  group*  Sewing  and 
cooking  classes  for  the  women  and  mechani¬ 
cal  drawing  lessons  for  the  men  are  among 
the  group  activities* 


132 


AN  ENDURING  STRUCTURE 


He  was  extremely  fond  of  anything  that 
fostered  the  intra-social  spirit,  and  he  made 
a  great  annual  occasion  of  the  yearly  picnic, 
which  he  often  planned  for  some  quite  dis¬ 
tant  point,  so  that  the  employees  and  their 
families  might  enjoy  new  surroundings  and 
scenery*  The  "57  Clubs/'  one  the  Men's  57 
Club,  and  the  other  the  Girls'  57  Club,  are 
social  clubs  in  which  he  was  keenly  inter¬ 
ested,  and  they  have  been  developed  to  a 
point  where  they  play  a  great  part  in  the 
spirit  of  "the  Heinz  family*"  A  monthly 
newspaper  for  the  employees  and  a  dramatic 
society  are  part  of  their  activities* 

In  these,  and  the  many  other  provisions 
for  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  those  in  the 
plant,  he  was  most  careful  always  to  so  in¬ 
itiate  them  and  administer  them  that  there 
was  no  suggestion  of  their  being  handed 
down  from  on  high  as  acts  of  grace  or  charity* 
He  made  them  all  matters  of  genuine  fellow¬ 
ship,  springing  normally  and  naturally  from 
the  union  of  employer  and  employees*  He 
showed  such  unflagging  and  unreserved 
personal  delight  in  them,  day  by  day,  that 


i33 


AN  ENDURING  STRUCTURE 


they  became,  and  remain,  like  bonds  that  tie 
an  actual  family  together* 

To  his  spirit  of  personal  participation, 
the  Christmas  season  was  particularly  sig¬ 
nificant,  and  the  custom  of  joint  Christmas 
celebration  by  employer  and  employees  is  an 
old  one  in  the  Heinz  plant,  dating  back  more 
than  forty  years*  Even  in  the  early  days  of 
struggle  he  could  not  have  gone  home  with 
a  happy  heart  on  Christmas  Eve  had  he  not 
given  each  employee  something,  if  not  more 
than  a  jar  of  preserves*  As  prosperity  grew, 
the  gifts  grew;  but  big  or  little,  whether 
simply  a  token  as  in  the  old  days,  or  hand¬ 
some  presents  such  as  silk  umbrellas,  silk 
scarfs,  specially  made  Swiss  clocks  and  so  on, 
they  were  given  in  the  spirit  of  the  family 
celebration*  Little  Christmas  trees  in  each 
department,  personal  greetings  and  inter¬ 
change  of  good  wishes  between  officers  of 
the  company  and  employees,  mutual  par¬ 
ticipation  of  all  throughout  the  organization 
in  personal  interchange  of  gifts — these  make 
the  annual  festival  a  real  one* 

The  sense  of  unity  typified  by  these  inter¬ 
relations  was  expressed  by  the  employees  in 


134 


AN  ENDURING  STRUCTURE 

1909  when  the  celebration  of  the  fortieth 
anniversary  of  the  business  was  seized  by 
them  as  the  occasion  for  giving  him  a  most 
beautiful  silver  loving  cup,  with  words  of 
affection  that  he  treasured  deeply: 

TO 

Henry  J.  Heinz 
Fortieth  Anniversary 

of 

H.  J.  Heinz  Company 
A  Token  of  Affectionate  Regard  and  Esteem 

from  your 

Directors  and  Employees 


135 


XI 

BUSINESS  POLICIES 

He  was  not  a  dreamer  or  a  visionary,  who 
went  into  business  and  by  chance  made  a 
success*  He  was  a  business  man  by  origin,  by 
preference,  by  training*  He  brought  into 
business  his  own  unique  philosophy  of  busi¬ 
ness,  but  he  used  the  same  machinery  of 
business  that  always  has  been  used*  He 
bought  carefully*  He  produced  with  ef¬ 
ficiency*  He  sold  effectively*  He  expected 
those  with  whom  he  dealt  to  fulfill  agree¬ 
ments  as  he  fulfilled  his*  His  success  was  on 
regular  business  lines,  not  by  any  revolu¬ 
tionary  method  such  as  only  a  genius  may, 
now  and  then,  apply  for  a  short-lived  term* 

He  brought  about  decided  changes  in  the 
business  methods  of  handling  and  selling 
prepared  food  products,  but  all  these  changes 
were  based  on  the  same  steady  principles  of 
practical  and  sound  business  that  all  men 
recognize* 

A  notable  example  is  his  successful  fight 
against  the  practice  of  “sale  of  futures” 
which  was  dominant  in  the  industry*  It  had 


i37 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 


been  a  custom  of  pickling  establishments  to 
sell  for  future  delivery,  the  sellers  speculating 
on  a  large  coming  crop  with  low  prices  for 
their  raw  material,  and  the  buyers  speculat¬ 
ing  on  the  opposite* 

To  Mr*  Heinz  any  business  transaction  in 
which  all  parties  did  not  benefit  equitably 
was  not  only  wrong  as  practical  business, 
but  morally  wrong*  In  buying  and  selling 
futures,  both  parties  could  not  possibly 
profit*  Somebody  had  to  lose  every  season* 

He  told  his  organization  that  he  intended 
to  fight*  “No  man  can  fix  an  honest  price  on 
his  product/'  he  said,  “till  he  knows  what  it 
is  going  to  cost  him,  and  no  man  can  know 
that  till  he  knows  what  the  crop  is*" 

His  sales  force,  willing  as  a  rule  to  follow 
him  in  anything,  was  taken  aback*  The  men 
protested  that  if  the  Heinz  organization,  all 
alone,  waited  till  the  crop  was  ready  to  pick 
before  taking  orders,  all  the  dealers  would 
be  loaded  up  by  the  time  the  Heinz  salesmen 
entered  the  market*  He  recognized  that  they 
were  arguing  with  loyal  regard  for  his  inter¬ 
ests,  and  he  pursued  his  usual  course*  He 
resolved  to  convince  them  by  experience. 


138 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 


All  the  information  that  he  had  gathered 
led  him  to  anticipate  that  the  next  crop 
would  be  unusually  short,  with  correspond¬ 
ingly  high  prices  for  raw  material*  He  per¬ 
mitted  his  men  to  meet  the  market  practice 
of  selling  futures,  and  waited*  The  crop 
turned  out  to  be  so  small  that  prices  soared* 
When  the  season's  business  was  finished,  he 
called  in  the  sales  managers  from  all  parts  of 
the  country  and  showed  them  the  books. 
Their  sales  for  future  delivery,  on  a  price 
made  in  advance  of  crop,  had  cost  the  com¬ 
pany  $100,000* 

From  that  day  the  whole  organization 
stood  with  him  like  a  rock  against  future 
sales,  and  in  the  end  succeeded  in  educating 
the  dealers  to  buy  when  the  price  could  be 
set  fairly  and  intelligently* 

He  paid  a  large  sum  to  gain  his  end;  but 
he  had  calculated  it  in  advance,  and  had 
decided,  correctly,  that  it  would  come  back 
in  the  form  of  better  business*  And  with  the 
speculative  element  eliminated,  the  road  was 
clear  for  the  next  sweeping  reform,  which 
was  to  keep  the  dealers'  stocks  down  to  those 
quantities  that  they  should  have  for  quick 


139 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 


turnovers*  It  was  a  new  conception  to  sales¬ 
men — to  advise  customers  to  buy  less  rather 
than  more,  and  many  dealers  were  almost  as 
hard  to  convince*  He  inaugurated  the  new 
policy  with  another  object  lesson,  by  in¬ 
structing  his  salesmen  to  inform  dealers  that 
the  company  would  return  to  them  fifty 
per  cent  of  the  purchase  price  for  goods  that 
had  been  in  their  stocks  for  a  period  that  he 
considered  too  long  for  retaining  full  per¬ 
fection  of  flavor*  As  fast  as  the  salesmen 
could  take  them  over,  they  broke  them  up 
on  the  spot  for  the  rubbish  heap* 

It  cost  another  large  sum  of  money*  But 
the  stores  of  the  entire  country  were  cleared 
of  old  stock*  The  consumer  everywhere  was 
sure  to  get  the  Heinz  quality  he  had  learned 
to  expect*  The  dealers  were  freed  from  the 
burden  and  waste  of  carrying  over-stocks, 
which  mean  dead  stocks  and  ultimate  loss* 
The  policy  bore  rich  fruit  for  both  dealers 
and  the  company  in  the  reconstruction  period 
after  1918*  When  the  vast  climb  of  prices 
began  during  the  war  the  business  world 
apparently  had  only  one  thought — to  buy, 
buy,  buy,  stock  up  to  the  limit*  In  that  wild 


140 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 


time  this  policy  did  not  seem  wild.  It  seemed 
the  best  business.  The  catastrophe  of  Europe 
had  so  affected  human  psychology  that  all 
the  accustomed  judgments  and  reasonings  of 
mankind  were  shaken, 

Henry  J,  Heinz  looked  at  that  orgy  which 
was  called  a  “seller's  market,"  He  saw  that 
men  were  so  determined  to  buy  that  all  lines 
were  broken.  If  he  would  not  sell  to  them, 
they  would  buy  from  others.  It  was  not  a 
question  of  quality,  or  old  relations,  or  any¬ 
thing  else  just  then  except  delivery — delivery 
of  anything  and  everything. 

He  recognized  all  this — and  the  Heinz 
institution  sent  word  to  all  its  salesmen  to 
cut  sales  to  current  requirements  only. 

To  the  dealers  the  information  came  as 
exceedingly  unwelcome  news.  But  when  the 
downward  turn  of  prices  began  they  had 
low  inventories  of  Heinz  goods.  And  the 
Heinz  institution,  though  it  had  sacrificed 
huge  possible  sales  for  the  time,  also  had  low 
inventories,  and  was  able  to  put  out  the  new 
lower  prices  immediately.  The  result  was 
that  during  the  long  period  of  deflation, 
when  innumerable  concerns  reported  no 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 


orders  at  all  and  millions  of  dollars  had  to 
be  written  off  as  losses  due  to  depreciation  in 
inventories,  the  Heinz  organization  had  a 
small  minor  depreciation  to  write  off,  and  its 
business  showed  a  very  considerable  increase* 
The  customers  realized  with  profound  satis¬ 
faction  that  they  had  no  stocks  of  Heinz 
goods  on  which  to  take  losses* 

These,  and  the  many  other  policies  that 
he  put  through  during  his  long  career,  were 
all  with  a  view  beyond  the  immediate  pres¬ 
ent*  They  looked  to  the  future— future  busi¬ 
ness,  future  stability,  future  good  will*  And 
they  succeeded  and  had  permanent  results 
because  they  were  for  the  mutual  advantage 
of  all  concerned*  When  he  sold,  he  thought 
of  the  profit  for  the  dealer  and  the  satisfac¬ 
tion  of  the  consumer*  When  he  bought,  he 
considered  the  interests  of  the  seller  as  well 
as  his  own*  The  buying  staffs  of  the  Heinz 
organization  today  repeat  his  cardinal  rule: 
“Deal  with  the  seller  so  justly  that  he  will 
want  to  sell  to  you  again*”  He  bought 
shrewdly,  and  few  men  knew  so  well  as  he 
the  exact  state  of  a  market;  but  one  of  the 
traditions  of  the  buying  department  is  that 


142 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 


the  men  of  whom  he  bought  most  closely 
were  his  staunchest  friends  and  admirers. 

His  selling  policies  were  on  the  same 
principle.  Long  before  the  merchants  of  the 
United  States  heard  such  phrases  as  “mer¬ 
chandising  service,”  he  was  acting  on  the 
idea  that  it  is  not  enough  for  a  manufacturer 
to  get  his  goods  on  a  merchant's  shelves,  but 
that  he  must  help  get  them  off  the  shelves 
again.  Therefore,  he  sought  the  good  will  of 
the  consumer  by  every  means  possible. 

Advertising  was  one  of  the  instrumentali¬ 
ties  that  he  utilized  to  an  ever-growing  ex¬ 
tent.  The  story  of  the  development  of  this 
one  activity  alone  would  be  almost  a  history 
of  the  evolution  of  American  advertising, 
for  it  would  record  a  beginning  with  a  few 
inexpensive,  simple  cards  and  signs,  and  lead 
up  to  the  present  organized  publicity,  utiliz¬ 
ing  almost  every  sound  advertising  element 
and  keeping  the  company's  name  and  prod¬ 
ucts  before  all  countries  and  races  of  the 
world  where  commerce  penetrates. 

He  had  no  training  or  experience  in  adver¬ 
tising  when  he  began.  But  he  had  the  faculty 
of  speaking  to  people  in  their  own  language; 


143 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 


he  knew  exactly  what  he  wanted  to  tell  them, 
and  he  did  not  want  to  tell  them  anything 
except  what  he  believed  himself*  So  from 
the  first  his  advertising  had  the  greatest 
quality  that  advertising  can  have — sincerity* 
It  is  the  vital  spark  of  advertising,  and  it  can 
not  be  faked*  The  insincere  man  may  use 
words  that  glitter,  but  somehow,  in  a  way 
not  to  be  defined,  the  sincere  man  will  get 
something  foursquare  into  his  plain  state¬ 
ments,  and  the  other  fellow  cannot* 

As  with  other  parts  of  his  business,  he 
moved  slowly  and  cautiously  till  he  had 
learned,  and  then  he  advanced  swiftly*  In 
the  course  of  a  few  decades  the  little  adver¬ 
tising  department  that  had  turned  out  a  few 
street-car  cards  had  grown  to  a  department 
that  conducted  some  of  the  largest  outdoor 
display  advertising  in  the  country* 

When  he  turned  to  the  field  of  printed 
advertising,  he  again  wanted  to  learn  slowly, 
though  by  that  time  he  had  become  one  of 
the  largest  outdoor  advertisers  of  the  coun¬ 
try*  When  his  son  proposed  the  first  maga¬ 
zine  campaign,  he  said:  “How  much  do  you 
want?”  The  answer  was:  “Twenty-five 


1 44 


Heinz  Ocean  Pier,  Atlantic  City 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 


thousand  dollars*”  “We  begin  slowly  here,” 
said  Mr*  Heinz*  “I  will  let  you  have  ten 
thousand  dollars*”  When  he  saw  the  result 
he  said:  “Good!  How  much  do  you  want 
now?”  The  answer  was:  “A  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  dollars*”  “I  will  give  you  twenty-five 
thousand,”  said  he*  After  that,  when  the 
test  had  satisfied  him,  he  was  ready  to  go  into 
that  form  of  advertising  in  the  same  big  way 
as  the  other* 

At  the  World's  Fair  Exposition  in  Chi¬ 
cago  he  saved  not  only  his  own  display,  but 
the  exhibits  of  all  the  food-product  makers 
represented  there,  from  what  looked  like 
hopeless  failure*  They  had  been  placed  in  a 
gallery,  and  as  soon  as  the  Exposition  opened 
it  became  sadly  evident  that  of  the  army  of 
visitors  only  melancholy  driblets  would 
climb  there*  Everybody,  including  the  man¬ 
agers  of  the  Exposition,  bowed  to  what 
seemed  beyond  remedy*  Mr*  Heinz  spent  an 
evening,  pondering*  Next  week  visitors 
walking  through  the  grounds  were  startled 
by  spying  brass  trunk  checks  here  and  there* 
They  picked  them  up  and  saw  the  apparent 
checks  bore  an  announcement  that  the  finder 


145 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 

would  receive  a  souvenir  at  the  Heinz 
booth. 

There  were  thousands  of  checks.  The  rush 
to  the  food-products  exhibit  became  so  great 
that  in  the  end  it  was  necessary  to  strengthen 
the  supports  of  the  gallery.  Once  the  tide 
had  turned,  it  kept  flowing.  The  exhibit  was 
amply  interesting,  even  without  souvenirs, 
and  through  the  whole  period  of  the  Exposi¬ 
tion  the  food-product  gallery  remained  one 
of  the  popular  attractions.  One  of  Mr, 
Heinz'  prized  possessions  was  a  loving  cup 
that  the  other  food-product  men  gave  him 
in  recognition  of  the  success  that  he  had 
snatched  out  of  failure  for  them  all. 

The  famous  Atlantic  City  Pier  advertise¬ 
ment  is  another  of  his  conceptions.  It  is  un¬ 
doubtedly  correct  to  say  that  there  is  no 
other  single  advertisement  like  it  in  the  world : 
for  the  Heinz  advertisement  in  that  great 
pleasure  city  is  an  entire  steel  pier,  beflagged 
in  the  day  time,  burning  bright  and  white 
with  electricity  at  night,  with  rest-rooms  and 
lecture-hall,  a  collection  of  art  and  antiques, 
display  rooms  and  demonstration  space. 
Every  day  throughout  the  year  it  is  crowded 


1 46 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 


with  visitors,  and  as  Atlantic  City  has  an 
immense  daily  influx  of  people  from  all 
parts  of  the  American  Continent,  not  to 
count  foreign  visitors,  this  one  advertisement 
may  well  be  considered  a  very  substantial 
national  campaign  by  itself* 

In  all  the  Company's  advertising,  the 
phrase  “57  Varieties"  is  so  familiar  to  all 
America  that  it  has  become  the  universally 
recognized  symbol  of  the  Heinz  products* 
Its  origin  was  in  1896*  Mr*  Heinz,  while  in 
an  elevated  railroad  train  in  New  York,  saw 
among  the  car-advertising  cards  one  about 
shoes  with  the  expression  “21  Styles*"  It 
set  him  to  thinking,  and  as  he  told  it :  “I  said 
to  myself,  'we  do  not  have  styles  of  products, 
but  we  do  have  varieties  of  products*'  Count¬ 
ing  up  how  many  we  had,  I  counted  well 
beyond  57,  but  '57'  kept  coming  back  into 
my  mind*  'Seven,  seven' — there  are  so  many 
illustrations  of  the  psychological  influence 
of  that  figure  and  of  its  alluring  significance 
to  people  of  all  ages  and  races  that  '58 
Varieties'  or  '59  Varieties'  did  not  appeal  at 
all  to  me  as  being  equally  strong*  I  got  off 
the  train  immediately,  went  down  to  the 


147 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 


lithographer’s,  where  I  designed  a  street-car 
card  and  had  it  distributed  throughout  the 
United  States*  I  myself  did  not  realize  how 
highly  successful  a  slogan  it  was  going  to  be*” 
All  these  widely  branching  business  ac¬ 
tivities — buying,  manufacturing,  selling, 
distributing,  shipping  and  advertising — 
were  bound  together  into  close  unity*  He 
was  a  pioneer  in  the  holding  of  conventions 
of  his  salesmen  and  other  departments.  Per¬ 
sonal  contact  was  all-important  to  him*  He 
believed  it  to  be  a  thousandfold  more  ef¬ 
fective  than  correspondence*  In  1902  he 
brought  his  salesmen  from  all  over  the  world 
together  in  Pittsburgh,  the  convention  num¬ 
bering  almost  four  hundred  men*  Since  the 
early  years  of  the  ’8o’s  there  has  been  at  each 
Branch  House  a  monthly  convention  of  all 
Branch  House  salesmen,  country  and  city* 
There  has  been  a  semi-annual  convention  of 
Branch  House  Managers  and  Head  Salesmen 
ever  since  that  period*  Branch  House  Head 
Salesmen  meet  in  weekly  convention.  Every 
quarter  year  there  has  been  a  convention  of 
Branch  House  District  Managers*  In  ad¬ 
dition  to  these  there  are  conventions  of 


148 


BUSINESS  POLICIES 

District  SaltingHouseManagers,BranchFac- 
tory  Managers,  Heads  of  Departments,  and 
many  others*  In  fact,  the  policy  of  constant 
personal  contact  and  mutual  exchange  of 
information  and  ideas  was  brought  by  him 
into  every  part  and  corner  of  the  business, 
and  its  maintenance  today  is  one  of  the  most 
powerful  factors  for  the  smooth  working  of 
the  big  institution* 


149 


XII 

HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 

HlS  love  for  children  was  more  than  fond 
sentiment*  He  understood  them*  The  study 
of  their  minds  was  an  absorbing  pursuit* 
Everything  that  interested  them  had  his 
own  eager  interest*  He  seemed  to  know  in¬ 
tuitively  how  a  child  sees  things,  and  because 
of  this  children  understood  him*  They  had 
confidence  in  him*  “No  matter  what  our 
father  asked  us  to  do  or  not  to  do,”  says  one 
of  his  sons,  “we  never  felt  that  it  was  hard 
or  unfair*”  As  they  recall  their  infancy,  they 
recall  him  even  then  not  at  all  as  a  conven¬ 
tional  father,  but  as  a  trusted  companion — 
one  to  whom  it  was  natural  to  tell  everything* 
The  secret  of  his  success  as  a  father  is  that 
he  took  joy  in  human  life*  As  some  men  love 
and  study  books,  he  loved  and  studied  hu¬ 
man  beings*  He  delighted  in  the  duty  of 
fellowship,  and  in  his  home  he  imparted 
something  of  that  joy  to  his  children*  He 
never  held  duty  up  before  them  as  a  stern 
commandment*  He  showed  it  to  them  as 
happiness,  and  every  day  he  himself  was 


1 5 1 


HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 


their  best  example,  because  they  could  not 
fail  to  see  the  pleasure  that  he  got  from 
every  duty  well  performed,  every  respon¬ 
sibility  well  borne* 

In  the  Heinz  house  the  words  “must” 
and  “must  not”  were  so  rare  that  it  might 
almost  be  said  they  did  not  exist*  He  wanted 
to  get  results  at  home,  as  he  did  in  business, 
not  by  compelling  obedience,  but  by  winning 
it*  He  sought  to  develop  his  children  by 
developing  in  them  willingness  of  heart* 

He  taught  them  unity  of  existence*  His 
business  life  and  his  family  life  were  not 
separate  phases  with  a  gulf  between*  He  had 
no  business  face  or  business  manner  that  he 
needed  to  shed  when  he  entered  the  door  of 
his  home*  He  did  not  bring  his  business 
home  in  the  sense  of  dragging  a  chain,  but 
the  fortunes  of  the  working  day,  and  the 
lives  and  fortunes  of  the  people  in  the  insti¬ 
tution,  were  part  of  the  family  interest*  His 
children  never  heard  anything  to  suggest 
that  the  duties,  problems  and  satisfactions 
of  life  at  home  were  different  from  the 
duties  and  satisfactions  of  the  working  part 
of  life* 


152 


HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 


In  maintaining  this  unity  of  life,  he  had  a 
partner  in  the  deepest  and  sweetest  sense  of 
the  word*  Sarah  Sloan  Young,  who  became 
his  wife  on  September  23,  1869,  loved  and 
understood  children  as  he  did,  and  she  loved 
and  understood  him.  To  a  beautifully  serene 
disposition  she  united  a  wit  that  was  unmis¬ 
takably  a  happy  racial  inheritance  from  her 
parents*  lineage  which  ran  back  through 
many  generations  in  County  Down,  Ireland. 

In  the  early  days  of  their  married  life, 
when  he  was  fighting  hard  to  establish  him¬ 
self,  he  had  formed  the  habit  of  doing  some 
work  at  home  practically  every  evening. 
After  he  had  reached  success,  he  continued  it, 
usually  by  bringing  home  somebody  with 
whom  he  wished  to  discuss  matters.  She  did 
not  try,  as  some  fond  wives  might  do,  to 
dissuade  him.  She  knew  that  his  zeal  was  a 
part  of  him.  She  had  ready  for  him  amusing 
stories  of  her  day's  experiences.  She  saw  to 
it  that  there  should  be  a  romp  with  the  chil¬ 
dren,  and  that  the  talk  at  dinner  should  be 
such  as  to  give  him  utter  relaxation. 

Throughout  their  married  life  these  two 
thus  smoothed  every  road  for  each  other. 


i53 


HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 


The  recollection  of  her  unfailing  courage  and 
support  in  the  days  of  adversity  was  his 
richest  treasure  of  memory*  Their  first 
modest  home  in  Sharpsburg  was  as  dear  to 
their  thoughts  as  the  noble  house  that  they 
came  to  inhabit  later*  They  were  bound 
together,  one  and  complete,  from  beginning 
to  end* 

In  that  first  home  in  Sharpsburg  two  chil¬ 
dren  were  born  to  them*  The  first  was  Irene 
Edwilda,  who  became  the  wife  of  John  L* 
Given  of  New  York* 

The  second  child,  Clarence,  was  born 
April  17,  1873*  After  his  school  days  he 
served  in  the  business  till  failure  of  health 
compelled  his  retirement*  He  died,  unmar¬ 
ried,  in  1920* 

The  third  child,  Howard,  was  born  Au¬ 
gust  27,  1877,  in  a  home  in  the  country 
about  two  miles  from  Sharpsburg,  whither 
Mr*  Heinz  had  removed*  He  was  educated 
in  Yale,  spending  his  vacations  in  the  busi¬ 
ness,  which  he  entered  actively  immediately 
after  his  graduation  from  college*  On  his 
father's  death  he  succeeded  to  the  presidency 
of  the  company*  He  married  Elizabeth  Rust 


154 


Birthplace  of  Henry  J.  Heinz 


“Greenlawn,”  Residence  of  Henry  J.  Heinz,  Pittsburgh 


HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 


of  Saginaw,  Michigan,  in  1 906,  and  has  two 
children,  H*  J*  Heinz  the  2nd  and  Rust* 

Returning  to  Sharpsburg  in  1879,  the 
family  home  was  maintained  there  until 
1887*  Two  children  were  born  there,  Rob¬ 
ert  Eugene,  who  lived  less  than  a  month  after 
his  birth  on  May  23,  1882,  and  Clifford 
Stanton,  born  December  30,  1883,  who  was 
educated  at  Lafayette  College  and  is  a  Vice- 
President  of  the  company*  He  married  Sarah 
Y oung  of  Pittsburgh  in  1 9 1 7,  and  they  have 
three  children* 

In  1889,  the  home  in  Sharpsburg  was 
given  up  and  a  new  home  was  established  in 
Allegheny,  now  North  Side,  Pittsburgh*  In 
1890  the  beautiful  house  and  grounds, 
"Greenlawn,”  on  Penn  Avenue,  in  the  section 
of  Pittsburgh  known  as  Homewood,  became 
the  family  seat*  Mr*  Heinz*  passion  for 
building  and  developing  here  found  delight¬ 
ful  occasion  for  enlargements  and  improve¬ 
ments,  until,  with  the  years,  it  had  become 
one  of  the  most  attractive  residences  of  a  city 
noted  for  beautiful  dwellings* 

In  these  happy  worldly  circumstances  sur¬ 
rounding  his  family,  Mr*  Heinz  saw  a  heavy 


155 


HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 


and  grave  responsibility  lying  on  himself  as 
a  father.  With  his  habit  of  looking  straight 
at  uncomfortable  facts,  he  faced  the  fact  that 
in  too  many  cases  a  father's  wealth  had  meant 
disaster  to  his  sons, 

“It  should  not  be  so,"  said  he,  “The 
means  to  provide  education  and  other  op¬ 
portunities  should  be  a  great  advantage  to  a 
boy,  not  a  handicap.  It  is  the  father's  duty 
to  see  to  it.  Wealth  is  the  father's  respon¬ 
sibility,  and  if  his  boys  go  wrong  because  of 
it,  it  is  his  fault,  not  theirs," 

He  taught  them  that  money  was  only  a 
concrete  symbol  of  success,  not  a  standard. 
He  taught  them  to  think  of  success  only  in 
terms  of  achievement,  ambitious  purpose, 
service  rendered  to  the  ultimate  degree.  It 
may  be  accounted  as  his  triumph  that  in  the 
Heinz  house  the  sons  did  not  talk  money, 
did  not  think  money,  and  did  not  think  of 
their  father  as  having  money.  There  had 
been  set  before  them  a  greater  family  pride 
than  the  pride  of  financial  prosperity. 

They  learned  the  same  lesson  from  both 
parents — that  the  only  genuine  superiority 
in  life  comes  from  superior  performance.  To 


156 


HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 


Mrs*  Heinz,  as  to  him,  all  show  was  repug¬ 
nant*  She  disliked  display  in  dress  or  con¬ 
duct  or  in  any  other  manifestation*  Means 
meant  opportunity  for  her  to  engage  in  ever- 
widening  work  for  public  causes,  hospitals, 
churches*  Her  excellent  health  gave  her  un¬ 
flagging  energy,  so,  though  she  was  wholly 
womanly,  and  a  self-sacrificing  mother  who 
set  her  home  duty  above  all,  she  became  a 
leader  in  the  women's  activities  of  Pitts¬ 
burgh,  fulfilling,  among  many  other  duties, 
the  extremely  exacting  work  demanded  by 
her  official  connection  with  the  Allegheny 
County  Children's  Aid  Society,  whose 
achievements  stand  high  in  the  annals  of 
child  welfare  movements*  Her  work  with 
the  South  Side  Hospital,  her  local  church 
and  general  charity  work,  all  occupied  much 
of  her  time  and  interest* 

To  do  more  than  the  average,  to  do  more 
than  might  strictly  be  expected — these  am¬ 
bitions  were,  somehow,  made  pleasures  in 
the  Heinz  household*  Mr*  Heinz  knew  too 
much  about  children  to  forget  that  they 
must  see  concrete  rewards*  So,  while  they 
were  young,  he,  like  other  parents,  used  the 


i57 


HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 


incentive  of  gifts,  money  payments  for  work 
done,  etc*  But  he  spared  no  pains  to  make 
them  understand  that  the  reward  was  not 
the  big  factor*  He  never  made  the  fatal  error 
of  bribing  his  children* 

In  the  same  spirit  he  taught  them  to  save 
money*  He  inculcated  the  habit  of  saving, 
not  for  the  pleasure  of  accumulating,  not 
even  primarily  as  a  matter  of  financial  thrift, 
but  as  a  factor  for  creating  self-restraint  and 
contentment*  In  his  own  person  he  taught 
contentment  every  day  of  his  life*  He  wanted 
astonishingly  little  for  himself*  Indeed,  he 
seemed  to  have  no  use  for  any  possession 
that  should  be  purely  his  own*  He  wanted 
no  jewelry  or  other  personal  adornment* 
When  he  travelled,  he  laid  so  little  stress  on 
his  own  comfort  that  he  made  no  effort  to 
reserve  superior  accommodations*  He  was 
quite  content  with  any  hotel  room  or  rail¬ 
road  and  steamship  berth  that  he  could  get* 
In  fact,  he  often  started  on  an  ocean  voyage 
without  any  previous  arrangement  for  a 
stateroom,  willing  to  take  pot-luck  when  he 
got  aboard* 

Perhaps  the  hardest  part  of  his  work  of 
training  his  children  was  the  restraint  that 


HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 


he  had  to  impose  on  his  own  love  of  giving* 
He  made  an  art  of  it*  He  succeeded  in  being 
generous  to  them,  and  yet  in  permitting  no 
gift  to  seem  something  that  had  been  lightly 
come  by*  Thus,  though  he  was  passionately 
fond  of  horses,  and  looked  eagerly  forward 
to  having  his  sons  share  his  love  and  com¬ 
mand  over  them,  they  were  young  men  be¬ 
fore  he  permitted  himself  the  pleasure  of 
giving  them  horses  of  their  own*  While  they 
were  children,  they  had  to  be  content  with  a 
goat-wagon*  He  promoted  them  to  the 
ownership  of  a  donkey  only,  and  then  to  a 
pony  when  he  knew  that  they  would  value 
the  privilege  to  the  utmost*  In  like  manner 
he  made  other  possessions  come  as  the  result 
of  evolution* 

Thus  Henry  Heinz,  the  builder,  builded 
a  family*  Side  by  side,  he  and  his  wife  were 
spared  to  see  their  offspring  emerge  from 
childhood*  Side  by  side  they  had  the  joy  of 
being  able,  each  year,  to  give  more  to  the 
causes  to  which  they  were  devoted*  Though 
he  appreciated  deeply  the  marks  of  esteem 
that  came  to  him,  far  greater  was  his  pride  in 
the  love  that  his  wife  won  wherever  she 


159 


HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 


went*  No  one  person,  except  himself,  ever 
knew  all  she  did*  Like  him,  she  counted  the 
quiet  deed,  the  unknown  service,  as  the 
dearest* 

She  brought  succor  and  happiness  into 
scores  of  places  where  she  was  never  known 
by  name*  He  and  she  were  alike  in  this — 
that  generous  as  were  their  material  gifts,  the 
best  that  they  gave  was  themselves*  She  gave 
of  herself  without  stint*  Night  after  night 
saw  her  at  her  sick-beds,  where  her  buoyant, 
steady  temperament  brought  cheer*  It  came 
about  that  people  who,  ill  and  sad,  besought 
their  doctors  to  send  for  Mrs*  Heinz  to  bring 
them,  as  they  said,  sunshine* 

For  a  quarter  century  it  was  given  to  these 
two  to  be  with  each  other  on  earth  in  a  per¬ 
fect  life*  Then,  on  November  29,  1 894,  after 
only  a  few  days'  illness  from  pneumonia,  she 
was  taken  away*  Of  the  happy  married  life 
that  was  ended  thus  suddenly  no  better 
words  can  be  said  than  these  of  the  minister, 
the  Reverend  E*  M*  Wood,  at  her  funeral: 

“Twenty-five  years  ago  it  was  my  privi¬ 
lege  to  join  these  two  lives  in  the  sacred  bond 
of  marriage,  the  binding  clause  of  which 


■was 


Mrs.  Henry  J.  Heinz 


HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 


bond  says,  ‘Until  death  do  us  part';  and  not 
often  is  it  the  mournful  duty  of  the  same 
one  to  stand  before  the  one  who  is  left,  and 
say  the  sad  dissolution  of  the  bond  has 
come  at  last*  But  so  it  is.  I  have  known 
them  in  the  vicissitudes  which  have  marked 
and  sometimes  darkened  their  lives  and  their 
home,  and  through  all  such  times  there  has 
been  an  abiding  faith  in  the  final  triumph 
of  truth  and  right,  and  they  both  lived  to 
see  a  kind  and  bountiful  Providence  smile  • 
upon  them.  And  her  words  of  cheer  and 
ready  helpfulness  arched  many  a  dark  day 
with  the  bow  of  promise.  And  now,  on 
that  Thanksgiving  Day  of  our  nation,  when 
people  are  expressing  their  thanks  by  their 
offerings,  oh,  what  an  offering  was  this 
family  called  upon  to  give  up  to  God!  Of 
all  the  costly  treasures  that  have  ever  been 
given,  there  is  none  so  precious  as  the  gift  of 
wife  and  mother  back  to  God.  And  this 
family  will  not  forget  how  at  the  last  she 
surrendered  herself  as  the  offering  with  a 
gracious  smile,  and  with  many  blessings 
upon  each  one  of  them,  as  she  called  them 
one  by  one  to  her  bedside;  and  having  given 
each  one  her  parting  counsel  and  blessing 
she  left  a  special  blessing  for  her  dear  boy 
far  across  Atlantic's  rolling  tide.  ( Clarence 
was  attending  school  in  Germany .)  And 


HOME  AND  THE  FAMILY  FIRESIDE 


then,  having  performed  her  maternal  duty, 
and  expressed  with  a  smile  her  faith  in  the 
glorious  future — a  faith  she  had  maintained 
from  childhood — she  calmly  fell  asleep  in 
Jesus.” 

Henry  Heinz  had  no  fear  of  death.  He 
had  an  abiding  faith  that  the  power  that 
cared  for  him  here  would  never  desert  him 
there.  He  looked  upon  death  as  being  as 
natural  as  life.  For  the  quibbles  of  theology 
he  had  small  patience.  So  he  stood  erect  and 
unshrinking  to  take  the  blow.  With  a  simple 
and  loyal  faith  he  accepted  grief  as  he  had 
accepted  blessings.  He  knew  that  it  was  a 
grief  that  would  never  leave  him,  but  he 
would  not  let  it  darken  the  days  of  those 
around  him.  Twenty-five  years  passed  be¬ 
fore  the  summons  came  to  him  also.  In  all 
that  time  he  kept  the  wife  of  his  youth  en¬ 
shrined  in  his  heart's  holy  of  holies,  passing 
through  life  alone,  content  with  the  memory 
of  the  first,  last  and  only  love  of  his  existence. 


XIII 

TRAVEL:  A  REVEALER  OF 
CHARACTER 

AFTER  ten  years  of  intense  application  to 
the  building  of  his  business,  as  he  thought, 
but  which  turned  out  to  be  only  the  laying 
of  the  foundation,  Mr*  Heinz  needed  a  rest 
from  the  sixteen-hour  work  days  to  which 
he  was  accustomed*  In  the  spring  of  1886 
he  started  for  a  three  months'  trip  to  Europe* 
T o  many  men  such  a  vacation  would  have 
meant  a  vacant  mind;  a  lolling  about  in 
luxurious  hotels,  with  no  more  mental  ex¬ 
ercise  than  was  required  to  learn  where  the 
best  shows  were  running  and  how  to  reach 
them*  But  to  him  it  meant  an  opportunity 
for  education,  which  he  seized  with  avidity* 
He  believed  that  a  vacation  was  not  a  lazy 
spell,  but  a  change  in  the  form  of  one's  ac¬ 
tivity;  that  the  mind  is  rested  by  giving  it 
different  work  to  do*  So  Europe  was  not  a 
playground,  but  a  university* 

He  was  always  striving  to  supplement  the 
meagre  teaching  of  his  youth,  and  no  man 
ever  made  travel  play  a  larger  return  for  the 


163 


travel:  a  revealer  of  character 


time  and  money  invested  in  it*  He  made 
travel  a  school*  He  had  an  inquiring  mind, 
an  eye  from  which  nothing  ever  escaped,  was 
never  afraid  or  ashamed  to  ask  questions, 
and  as  he  went  he  gathered  facts  and  wisdom, 
knowledge  and  understanding* 

He  kept  a  very  complete  record  of  his  ob¬ 
servations  and  experiences  during  this  trip* 
The  entries  are  made  day  by  day  with  an 
enthusiasm  and  persistency  that  in  them¬ 
selves  reveal  character*  Of  course  the  value  of 
the  information  recorded  is  not  to  be  found 
in  the  light  it  throws  on  the  things  he  de¬ 
scribes,  but  in  the  insight  which  it  gives  into 
the  mental  operations  of  the  man  himself* 
It  reveals  the  man*  So  we  shall  follow  this 
travel  story  of  his  first  trip  to  Europe,  that 
we  may  see  what  things  interest  him,  what 
sentiments  are  awakened,  what  are  the  habits 
of  his  mind — in  short,  what  is  his  inner  life* 
Accompanying  him  were  his  wife  and 
four  children,  his  sister  Mary  and  a  Miss 
Prager,  a  family  friend*  They  sailed  on  May 
29,  on  the  steamship  “City  of  Berlin*” 

The  record  opens  with  a  mass  of  detail  in 
respect  to  the  ship  and  its  operation:  its  size. 


travel:  a  revealer  of  character 


age,  speed,  tonnage,  crew,  history,  horse¬ 
power,  mechanical  equipment;  nothing  is 
omitted.  There  are  notes  about  the  compass, 
log-line,  fog-horn,  organization  of  officers, 
discipline  and  duties  of  the  crew ;  observations 
as  to  the  sea,  its  roughness  and  its  smooth¬ 
ness,  fogs  and  the  Gulf  Stream,  From  the  ship 
and  the  sea,  his  mind  passes  on  to  the  men 
"who  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships,"  The 
fascination  that  the  sea  holds  for  them  is  a 
mystery  to  him.  He  cannot  understand  how 
they  prefer  the  monotonous,  uncertain  life 
of  the  sea  to  the  absorbing  activities  of  hu¬ 
man  affairs  on  land.  Still  less  can  he  under¬ 
stand  how  the  ever-present  perils  of  the  deep 
do  not  restrain  seafaring  men  from  wicked¬ 
ness  and  profanity.  He  concludes  that  fear 
of  danger  is  not  a  potent  factor  in  making 
men  good. 

If  there  was  anything  in  Liverpool  worth 
knowing  or  seeing  that  he  did  not  learn  or 
inspect,  it  must  have  been  wrapped  up  and 
laid  away  in  a  closet.  Its  docks  and  shipping, 
its  population  and  buildings,  its  climate, 
sanitary  condition,  appearance  of  streets,  its 


TRAVEL :  A  REVEALER  OF  CHARACTER 


tram-cars,  horses  and  carts,  industries,  cus¬ 
toms  of  business  men,  all  became  subjects  for 
comment,  with  conclusions  and  observations 
that  clearly  show  that  he  has  not  slavishly 
followed  a  guide  book,  but  has  gathered  his 
information  first  hand* 

In  passing  through  Bedford,  he  is  re¬ 
minded  of  John  Bunyan,  whose  birthplace 
it  was,  and  takes  time  to  express  the  opinion 
that  the  “Pilgrim's  Progress"  has  “wielded 
an  influence  for  good  in  the  world  that  has 
never  waned,"  and  regrets  that  it  is  not  read 
as  widely  as  it  once  was* 

His  record  of  London  is  not  the  record  of 
a  sightseer*  It  is  not  the  story  of  a  hurried, 
feverish  chase  from  building  to  building, 
from  monument  to  gallery,  from  historic 
pile  to  a  modern  wonder,  absorbing  from  the 
official  guide  so  much  history  that  is  fiction, 
so  many  facts  that  are  not  facts,  leaving  in 
the  end  a  superficial  blur,  so  confused  and 
indistinct  that  in  a  short  time  every  impres¬ 
sion  has  vanished,  and  the  “tourist"  can  only 
exclaim,  “Oh,  yes,  we  did  London — it  was 
great,"  or  like  the  woman  who  went  through 
Europe  and  remembered  nothing  but  the 


TRAVEL :  A  REVEALER  OF  CHARACTER 


wooden  bears  in  Switzerland*  It  was  the  care¬ 
ful  investigation  of  a  keen  mind,  the  ana¬ 
lytical  review  of  all  that  was  learned,  the 
deliberate  reaching  of  conclusions  and  the 
painstaking  recording  of  it  all* 

His  first  Sunday  in  London  was  a  full  day 
for  a  man  who  was  resting,  but  precisely  the 
kind  of  a  day  that  he  thoroughly  enjoyed* 
His  own  words  picture  it  best: 

“This  being  Sunday,  not  forgetting  our 
churchgoing  habit,  we  all  drove  to  the  City 
Road  Chapel,  the  most  historic  Methodist 
Church  in  the  world*  It  was  erected  by  John 
Wesley  in  1778*“ 

After  a  minute  description  of  the  building 
and  the  service,  and  some  words  of  admira¬ 
tion  for  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  he 
launches  forth  with  enthusiasm  into  the  his¬ 
tory  and  development  of  Methodism* 

Across  from  City  Road  Chapel  is  an  old 
burying-ground*  This  was  visited,  and  he 
notes  with  much  satisfaction  that  he  saw  the 
tombs  of  such  worthies  as  John  Bunyan, 
Oliver  Cromwell,  Isaac  Watt  and  Susannah 
Wesley,  the  mother  of  John  and  Charles* 
The  inscription  on  her  tomb  was  of  especial 


167 


TRAVEL :  A  REVEALER  OF  CHARACTER 


interest,  so  with  suitable  comment  he  copies 
it  into  his  record: 

“In  sure  and  steadfast  hope  to  rise. 

And  claim  her  mansion  in  the  skies, 

A  Christian  here  her  flesh  laid  down. 

The  cross  exchanging  for  a  crown.” 

Who  knows  but  what  a  well-known 
American  orator  got  his  inspiration  for  a 
great  speech  from  the  last  line? 

In  the  afternoon  he  went  to  a  Free  Metho¬ 
dist  Sunday  School,  actuated,  he  wrote,  by 
"a  desire  to  learn  as  much  as  possible  con¬ 
cerning  the  way  the  religious  people  of 
England  spent  the  Sabbath  day/*  He  was 
interested  to  find  that  they  were  studying 
the  International  Sunday  School  lessons, 
which  were  used  in  his  school  at  home,  but 
remarks  that  they  do  not  use  “lesson  helps,” 
as  in  America,  confining  themselves  to  the 
Bible  in  teaching  the  lesson. 

The  evening  found  him  listening  to  Spur¬ 
geon,  in  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle,  who 
impressed  him  as  “the  humblest  and  sim¬ 
plest  great  man  I  have  ever  heard.”  Thus  his 
first  Sunday  in  London  came  to  a  close,  a  day 
of  busy  rest. 


1 68 


TRAVEL :  A  REVEALER  OF  CHARACTER 


Refreshed  by  the  activities  of  the  Sabbath 
Day,  he  begins  the  week  with  the  pursuit  of 
a  new  line  of  inquiry*  He  wishes  to  know 
how  the  world's  greatest  city  cares  for  its 
poor,  its  sick  and  its  helpless*  So  to  Bar¬ 
tholomew  Hospital,  the  oldest  in  the  city, 
he  goes*  He  learns  all  about  this  institution, 
which  at  that  time  was  treating  annually 
seventy  thousand  patients*  After  pursuing 
his  study  of  this  subject  further  he  takes  up 
another  one,  a  comparison  of  the  methods 
of  and  public  interest  in  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  in  England  with 
America* 

There  would  be  something  uncanny  about 
this  omnivorous  investigator  were  he  to  go 
blithely  on  his  way  through  Europe  with 
never  a  thought  of  his  business*  We  are  not 
surprised,  therefore,  when  we  find  him  de¬ 
voting  a  few  days  to  a  study  of  business  men 
and  business  methods,  particularly  in  the  line 
of  his  own  business*  It  is  only  characteristic 
that  he  tried  his  qualities  of  salesmanship  on 
an  old-established  English  firm*  He  knew 
of  the  famous  firm  of  Fortum,  Mason  S  Co*, 
purveyors  to  the  King  and  to  nobility  in 


TRAVEL :  A  REVEALER  OF  CHARACTER 


general,  and  as  he  always  believed  it  was 
necessary  to  aim  high  if  you  are  to  hit  any¬ 
thing,  he  set  out  with  designs  on  these  very 
dignified  and  aristocratic  food  merchants* 
He  had  provided  himself  with  five  cases  of 
such  of  the  Company's  products  as  he  be¬ 
lieved  would  appeal  to  the  English  taste* 
Dressing  himself  more  carefully  than  usual 
(although  he  was  always  careful  about  his 
apparel),  and  wearing  a  top  hat,  he  called  a 
cab,  had  his  five  cases  placed  aboard,  and 
ordered  the  “cabby"  to  drive  to  Fortum, 
Mason  &  Co/s  in  Piccadilly*  He  asked  for  a 
member  of  the  firm,  showed  him  the  goods, 
explained  their  merits,  and  then  drew  back, 
figuratively  speaking,  to  brace  himself  to 
meet  the  adverse  arguments  and  objections 
which  he  confidently  expected*  It  almost 
took  his  breath  away  when  the  merchant, 
without  comment,  quietly  replied:  “We  will 
take  them  all*" 

Was  it  the  ease  with  which  the  sale  was 
made  or  his  appraisal  of  the  magnitude  of 
the  English  market  that  set  in  motion  a  train 
of  thoughts  that  ultimately  resulted  in  the 
establishment  of  a  London  Branch  House 


TRAVEL :  A  REVEALER  OF  CHARACTER 

nine  years  later?  In  any  event,  the  Branch 
House  came,  and  fought  its  way  against 
competition,  against  the  traditional  conserv¬ 
atism  of  the  English  people,  against  odds  so 
numerous  and  difficult  that  no  one  less  than 
a  man  with  a  prophet's  vision  and  a  pio¬ 
neer's  faith  would  have  pocketed  his  loss 
year  after  year,  with  a  smile,  until  the  tide 
turned*  But  he  lived  to  see  his  judgment 
vindicated*  The  one  Branch  House  has  be¬ 
come  four,  supplemented  by  a  factory,  and 
the  British  unit  is  alone  doing  a  business 
many  times  as  large  as  the  parent  house  was 
doing  even  several  years  later  than  when  this 
traveler  saw  the  open  door  of  opportunity* 
It  is  significant  of  his  expanding  thought  of 
the  reach  of  business  that  he  writes:  “Moun¬ 
tains  and  oceans  in  this  day  do  not  furnish 
any  impassable  barrier  to  the  extension  of 
trade*"  It  is  his  first  glimpse  of  the  day  when 
his  phrase,  “The  World  our  Field,"  would 
cease  to  be  a  prophecy,  and  become  a  reality* 
Joseph  Parker  was  the  magnet  that  drew 
him  to  the  City  Temple  on  the  second  Sun¬ 
day  in  London,  where  he  listened  to  a  sermon 


171 


TRAVEL :  A  REVEALER  OF  CHARACTER 


on  “Job's  Comforters/'  and  formed  this  im¬ 
pression:  “He  is  a  very  peculiar  sermonizes 
but  a  good  reasoned  He  is  interesting  to 
listen  to,  but  not  to  look  upon/' 

Crossing  the  English  Channel,  the  party 
soon  had  its  first  experience  in  wrestling  with 
a  strange  language  and  stranger  customs,  but 
this  did  not  interrupt  the  same  scrutinizing 
study  of  Paris  that  London  had  received* 
But  he  hurried  on,  because  the  Fatherland 
of  his  sires — Germany — was  calling* 

At  Wittenberg  he  viewed  with  reverence 
the  birthplace  and  cradle  of  the  Reformation, 
which  his  early  Lutheran  training  made  a 
Mecca  of  deepest  interest*  At  Wildbad,  in 
the  Black  Forest,  he  observes  a  type  of  life 
which  he  describes  as  “most  primitive*" 
“Gardening,"  he  writes,  “is  done  on  a  small 
scale,  and  the  products  hauled  to  the  market 
in  a  cart  drawn  by  a  cow*"  Nor  does  he  fail 
to  note  the  kindness  of  the  peasants,  and  the 
sweetness  and  simplicity  of  rural  life* 

With  his  strong  religious  bent,  he  never 
fails  to  see  a  church  or  miss  a  service,  and  in 
this  picture  of  a  little  Protestant  country 
church  in  the  Black  Forest,  we  have  a  good 


TRAVEL :  A  REVEALER  OF  CHARACTER 


example  of  the  minuteness  of  his  observa¬ 
tions,  He  had  a  love  for  details — whether 
in  or  outside  of  business, 

“This  is  a  plain  structure  of  about  seventy 
by  one  hundred  feet,  with  walls  from  five 
to  six  feet  thick,  which  look  as  if  built  to 
stand  for  ever.  The  floors  are  pine,  except 
the  aisles,  which  are  stone.  The  plain  pews 
are  without  cushions,  and  the  pulpit  is  about 
on  a  line  with  the  gallery.  The  worshippers 
were  in  plain  attire,  all  carrying  their  hymn 
and  prayer  books.  No  collection  is  taken  in 
the  church,  but  on  going  out  the  Treasurer 
is  at  the  door  with  his  contribution  box,  and 
all  are  not  only  expected  to,  but  do,  drop 
something  in.  The  people  were  very  attentive 
and  reverent  during  the  service,  and  at  the 
close  no  one  was  seen  speaking  to  another  on 
passing  out,” 

Leaving  Mrs,  Heinz  and  two  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  at  Wildbad,  he  took  the  two  elder  boys 
to  Heidelberg,  where  they  entered  a  private 
school  and  acquired  considerable  knowledge 
of  the  language. 

Passing  on  rapidly,  many  other  places  in 
Germany  were  visited.  Thence  to  Holland, 


173 


travel:  a  revealer  of  character 


to  see  the  fine  vegetable  gardens,  and  finally, 
with  his  sister  Mary,  a  visit  was  paid  to 
Kallstadt,  their  fathers  old  home.  Driving 
through  the  little  village  of  the  Rhineland, 
charmed  with  its  vineyards  and  orchards, 
everywhere  meeting  relatives,  his  record  book 
almost  grows  into  a  volume,  as  with  facile 
pen,  he  writes  of  visits  with  relatives,  his 
talks  with  them  and  descriptions  of  the  sim¬ 
ple  life  of  the  villagers.  Naturally  the  old 
homestead  left  a  deep  impress  on  his  mem¬ 
ory,  and  one  can  imagine  the  feeling  with 
which  he  writes:  “I  slept  one  night  in  the 
old  house.  It  is  a  stone  house  of  eleven  rooms, 
built  by  my  great-great-grandfather.  Many 
were  the  strange  thoughts  that  ran  through 
my  mind.  Imagination  was  busy  picturing 
the  events  that  may  have  occurred  in  this 
place  long  ago.” 

Saying  “Good-bye”  to  the  newly-found 
relatives,  who  were  visited  often  in  later 
years,  he  went  to  Heidelberg  for  the  boys, 
remained  to  witness  the  celebration  of  the 
500th  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the 
University,  and  then  the  party  turned  their 
faces  homeward,  and  in  the  last  entry  made 


174 


TRAVEL :  A  REVEALER  OF  CHARACTER 

in  the  "book  of  travel”  Mr*  Heinz  wrote, 
when  they  came  within  sight  of  New  York 
on  August  1 7,  there  was  a  mingling  of  love 
of  country  and  devotion  to  God*  It  was  this: 

“Of  all  banners,  ensigns  and  flags  we 
have  seen,  none  thrills  us  like  the  Stars  and 
Stripes*  I  desire  to  record  my  gratitude  to 
the  kind  Providence  that  has  kept  us  all  in 
safety  and  brought  us  back  to  our  native 
land,  which  we  love  the  best.” 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  first  trip 
to  foreign  lands  exercised  a  great  influence 
upon  the  character  of  Mr*  Heinz*  It  gave 
him  a  world  outlook*  His  life  had  been  lived 
under  influences  largely  provincial*  He  now 
began  to  see  the  significance  of  events  that 
were  transpiring  in  other  lands*  And  he  real¬ 
ized  the  educative  value  of  travel,  when 
done  as  he  did  it — for  in  closing  his  record, 
he  wrote: 

“We  have  seen  much  and  learned  much 
that  will  tend  to  broaden  and  liberalize  our 
views.  Travel  is  one  of  the  best  educators, 
and  all  that  I  have  gained  by  my  travels 
I  hope  to  realize  in  my  private  life  and  in 
business  so  that  my  time  and  expense  in 
turn  shall  at  last  inure  to  the  profit  of  every 
relation  which  I  sustain  to  society.” 


175 


travel:  a  revealer  of  character 


It  was  in  that  spirit  that  he  continued  to 
travel*  The  impulse  of  Wanderlust  was  in 
his  blood*  He  visited  Europe  every  year 
except  four,  between  1890  and  1915*  Two 
times  he  crossed  the  Pacific  to  China  and 
Japan — once  around  the  world — once  to 
the  Holy  Land,  to  Egypt  several  times,  and 
extensively  in  his  own  land*  He  traveled  to 
learn,  to  broaden  his  views,  to  become  cos¬ 
mopolitan  in  outlook  and  life,  to  make  him¬ 
self  of  greater  value  to  society,  and  to  weave 
his  life's  fabric  on  noble  patterns  of  service* 
He  could  say  with  truth,  “l  am  a  part  of  all 
I  have  met*”  Travel  was  his  university* 


The  House  in  Sharpsburg  where  the  Business  was  Started 


The  House  where  the  Business  was  Started  Being  Moved 
from  Sharpsburg  to  Pittsburgh 


XIV 

COLLECTING  ART  AND  ANTIQUES 

Henry  <L  Heinz  was  of  the  type  whom 
men  describe  with  the  words  "living  in  the 
future,"  He  never  arrived  at  the  stage  where 
he  wanted  to  fold  his  hands  and  let  things 
stop  as  they  were.  He  would  have  considered 
the  world  intolerably  dull  if  it  had  been  so 
ordered  that  every  day  should  be  the  same. 
He  was  immensely  interested  in  conserving 
whatever  was  good.  He  was  more  prudent 
and  more  cautious  than  most  men.  Specula¬ 
tion  was  foreign  to  him.  He  never  put  a 
dollar  into  the  stock  markets.  But  he  was 
not  conservative  in  the  sense  that  he  wanted 
the  dock  to  stop  because  the  time  suited  him 
as  it  v/as. 

The  future  was  everything  to  him.  He 
looked  forward  to  it  and  welcomed  it.  In  all 
that  he  did  and  thought  he  labored  for  it — 
for  the  future  of  the  institution,  the  future 
of  those  in  it,  the  future  of  his  children,  the 
future  of  the  social  movements  in  which  he 
played  a  part.  He  made  plans  for  contingen¬ 
cies  so  far  ahead  that  he  knew  he  could  not 
possibly  be  alive  when  they  arose. 


i  77 


COLLECTING  ART  AND  ANTIQUES 

Yet,  side  by  side  with  the  alert  spirit  that 
never  wearied  of  pilotage  and  exploration, 
there  was  a  deep  and  abiding  loyalty  for  old 
memories  and  associations.  His  friends  de¬ 
clare  that  he  never  forgot  anybody  of  whom 
he  had  been  fond,  or  any  little  episode  of  his 
long  life  that  involved  a  human  touch.  Time 
did  not  obliterate.  The  passage  of  the  years 
only  deepened  and  made  gracious  the  fond¬ 
ness  of  his  recollections. 

This  trait  of  character  gave  value  in  his 
eyes  to  many  objects  outwardly  valueless. 
He  prized  them  as  mementoes.  Among  his 
smaller  belongings  after  his  death  were  found 
almost  innumerable  little  keepsakes  that 
dated  backward  along  his  whole  journey  of 
life — Christmas  cards  from  his  parents,  sou¬ 
venirs  of  wife  and  children,  flotsam  and  jet¬ 
sam  of  a  human  voyage.  Although  he  had 
the  means  to  buy  for  himself  almost  what¬ 
ever  heart  could  desire,  these  were  the  treas¬ 
ures  that  he  preferred. 

He  kept  them  with  a  spirit  of  reverence 
for  lifets  meaning.  It  was  this  that  led  him 
to  save  his  old  desk  at  which  he  had  toiled 
when  the  road  was  rough.  It  was  this  that 


COLLECTING  ART  AND  ANTIQUES 

made  him  strive  against  all  odds  till  he  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  moving  the  old  house,  “the  house 
where  we  began,”  from  Sharpsburg  to  its 
present  honored  site  in  the  Pittsburgh  group 
of  plant  buildings* 

From  the  preservation  of  personal  me¬ 
mentoes,  precious  only  to  himself,  to  such 
collections  as  those  of  his  famous  ivory  carv¬ 
ings  and  jades,  seems  like  a  great  and  unre¬ 
lated  jump*  Really,  it  was  logical  evolution, 
and  he  advanced  toward  the  result  step  by 
step.  When  he  turned  to  the  collecting  of  art 
and  antiques,  he  put  all  his  honesty  and 
depth  of  character  into  it,  and  he  gathered 
item  after  item,  not  for  the  sake  of  piling  up 
rarities,  but  for  the  joy  and  beauty  and  in¬ 
spiration  that  it  would  bring  to  others. 

The  beginning  of  his  career  as  collector 
was  with  miscellaneous  objects  that  were 
chiefly  souvenirs  of  his  trips  through  the 
United  States,  It  was  a  phase  of  collection 
that  was  purely  for  the  sake  of  association. 
Among  this  “association”  group  were  his 
succeeding  collection  of  Civil  War  relics 
and  his  gatherings  of  minerals  and  coins. 
Most  collectors  have  passed  through  these 


179 


COLLECTING  ART  AND  ANTIQUES 

stages*  Most  of  them  stick  there  and  go  no 
further* 

With  his  widening  travels  and  interests, 
his  ardor  increased*  He  cut  down  or  elimi¬ 
nated  most  of  his  past  collections,  and  began 
to  specialize  on  a  few*  The  first  great  col¬ 
lection  that  he  made  on  specialized  lines  was 
his  collection  of  watches,  antique  and  his¬ 
torical*  The  manner  in  which  he  entered  this 
field,  and  gradually  made  himself  expert  in 
it,  has  been  referred  to  in  the  first  chapter  of 
this  book* 

It  would  have  given  him  no  pleasure  to 
collect  simply  by  dint  of  being  able  to  buy 
what  he  wanted*  His  pride  was  that  he  had 
brought  the  objects  together  through  his 
own  knowledge  and  study*  He  would  have 
felt  no  pride  in  a  collection  made  for  him  by 
hired  professionals* 

His  intention  originally  in  collecting 
watches  was  historical*  He  wanted  to  gather 
examples  that  should  portray  the  entire  evo¬ 
lution  of  watch-making*  His  bent  for  get¬ 
ting  at  the  fundamentals  of  things  in  business 
naturally  expressed  itself  in  collecting,  and 
he  began  at  the  beginning  by  collecting  the 


COLLECTING  ART  AND  ANTIQUES 

pocket  sundials  that  had  been  in  use  before 
the  watch  was  invented*  In  the  hunt  for 
these  comparatively  rare  objects,  he  had 
many  adventures  of  the  kind  that  delight 
collectors  when  they  get  together*  He  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  obtaining  interesting  specimens, 
notably  a  pocket  sundial  made  in  Augsburg 
in  1 6 1 8,  of  which  he  was  extremely  proud* 

It  may  be  said  in  a  general  way  that  every 
watch  that  he  added  to  his  cases  represented 
his  own  progress*  It  represented  all  that  he 
had  learned  while  collecting  the  preceding 
piece*  In  time  he  possessed  a  perfectly  or¬ 
dered,  historically  sound  collection  that  in¬ 
cluded  such  characteristic  items  as  a  specimen 
of  one  of  the  very  earliest  attempts,  a  great 
mechanism  of  brass  and  iron  made  in  Bavaria 
during  the  Sixteenth  Century*  Another 
unique  piece  was  the  watch,  more  than  six 
inches  in  diameter,  made  for  the  Emperor  of 
China  in  1707  by  Timotheus  Williamson, 
the  famous  watchmaker  of  Fleet  Street, 
London* 

In  the  course  of  the  years  that  passed  during 
this  pursuit,  he  enlarged  on  his  first  idea,  and 
added  watches  whose  value  lay  not  in  their 


181 


COLLECTING  ART  AND  ANTIQUES 

exemplification  of  watchmaking  history, 
but  in  other  historical  interest*  One  of  the 
great  prizes  that  he  brought  to  America, 
to  the  envy  of  all  collectors  of  all  nations, 
was  the  watch  that  Admiral  Nelson  carried 
in  the  battle  of  Trafalgar  on  October  21, 
1805,  the  day  when,  after  setting  the  signal, 
“England  expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty,” 
he  died  for  her  on  his  flagship* 

The  watch,  with  the  letters  “N”  and  “B” 
engraved  on  the  case  (“N”  for  Nelson  and 
“B”  for  his  ducal  title  of  Bronte)  had  come 
on  the  market  in  London  during  one  of  Mr* 
Heinz*  visits  to  England*  There  was  no  lack 
of  desirous  collectors,  but  the  owners  set  a 
price  on  it  that  made  even  the  most  eager 
hesitate*  Mr*  Heinz  wanted  it,  but  his  scru¬ 
ples  led  him  to  decide  that  he  was  not  justified 
in  spending  such  an  amount*  He  refused  to 
purchase  it,  but  he  could  not  dismiss  it  from 
his  mind*  With  the  true  passion  of  the  col¬ 
lector,  he  went  again  and  again  to  look  at  it* 
Finally  his  sister,  who  was  with  him,  made 
him  happy  by  urging  him  not  to  let  the  prize 
escape,  and  he  became  its  delighted  possessor* 
It  was  a  purchase  that  he  never  had  to  regret. 


182 


COLLECTING  ART  AND  ANTIQUES 

for  it  remains  one  of  the  valued  historic  ob¬ 
jects  of  the  world* 

Commencing  with  an  incentive  wholly 
historical,  the  beauty  of  many  of  the  watches 
that  he  found  gradually  became  his  chief 
interest,  until  finally  the  search  for  the  love¬ 
liness  of  the  world  became  a  great  and  noble 
part  of  his  life*  In  this  new  field,  he  had  to 
learn  not  simply  new  facts,  but  entirely  new 
significances  of  human  thought  and  human 
activity*  He  had  to  adjust  his  own  mind  to 
attitudes  wholly  different  from  those  to 
which  he  had  been  accustomed* 

He  succeeded  in  this,  too*  The  art  collec¬ 
tions  that  he  made  are  truly  his  own*  He 
made  them  as  he  had  made  his  previous  col¬ 
lections,  slowly,  step  by  step  as  he  learned* 
A  study  of  his  paintings  demonstrates  how 
he  proceeded*  He  tried  to  avoid  errors,  but 
he  expected  to  make  them,  and  he  saw  to  it 
that  each  mistake  should  be  turned  to  ac¬ 
count* 

A  trip  to  China  and  Japan  in  1902  stim¬ 
ulated  his  growing  admiration  for  the  work 
of  the  world's  ivory  carvers*  His  collection 
of  these  exquisite  forms  of  beauty  ultimately 


183 


COLLECTING  ART  AND  ANTIQUES 

became  one  of  the  finest  in  the  world.  Fie 
acquired  a  knowledge  and  an  understanding 
of  the  art  that  set  him  high  above  the  ordi¬ 
nary  lay  collector.  In  time  he  became  so 
conversant  with  the  carving  arts  and  crafts 
of  all  periods,  and  of  all  nations,  that  there 
were  few  great  dealers  in  the  world  who  did 
not  recognize  with  respect  that  they  had 
little  to  tell  him. 

He  particularly  enjoyed  the  work  of  col¬ 
lecting  Japanese  carvings,  firstly,  because  of 
their  consummate  art  and  beauty,  and 
secondly,  because  of  the  measuring  of  wits 
with  the  adroit  Japanese  dealers,  Mr,  Heinz, 
who  was  an  exceedingly  shrewd  buyer,  was 
amused  by  the  wiles  of  the  Oriental  seller, 
and  admired  his  talents  of  salesmanship 
with  the  interest  of  one  who  himself  was  an 
excellent  salesman  as  well  as  a  good  buyer. 

In  his  business,  where  the  seller  met  him 
fairly,  he  maintained  the  principle  of  looking 
out  for  the  seller's  interest  as  well  as  his  own. 
In  meeting  sharp  bargainers  on  their  own 
ground,  as  in  the  case  of  buying  objects  for 
his  collections,  he  revelled  in  matching 
shrewdness  against  shrewdness.  Antiques 


COLLECTING  ART  AND  ANTIQUES 

and  objects  of  art  rarely  have  fixed  standards 
of  value*  The  best  experts  will  make  esti¬ 
mates  that  often  vary  fantastically*  The 
seller's  policy  is  generally  the  simple  one  of 
getting  “all  that  the  traffic  will  bear*"  It 
amused  Mr*  Heinz  to  lay  a  plan  of  campaign 
in  which  he  utilized  all  that  he  knew  of  buy¬ 
ing  and  selling  and  of  human  nature* 

His  love  for  his  ivory  carvings  was,  prob¬ 
ably,  the  greatest  of  his  joys  as  a  collector* 
He  found  delight  in  his  other  collections, 
many  of  which  were  superb,  as,  for  example, 
the  jades  and  crystals,  in-roes  and  netsukes 
and  the  costume  books*  But  in  the  presence 
of  the  ivory  carvings,  he  was  as  a  passionate 
worshipper*  A  large  room  in  his  house  was 
remodelled  by  him  to  make  a  fitting  frame 
for  them,  and  here  it  was  his  delight  to  be 
among  them  with  others  to  share  the  pleasure* 
He  was  not  of  the  type  of  collectors  who 
gather  for  the  sake  of  private  possession*  To 
own  anything  exclusively  for  himself  never 
had  an  appeal  to  him*  Undoubtedly,  one  of 
the  elements  that  have  given  his  collections 
such  permanent  value  is  that  in  making  them 
he  was  actuated  by  the  thought  of  how  they 


COLLECTING  ART  AND  ANTIQUES 

would  inspire  many  people  of  many  kinds* 
In  the  museum  that  he  built  on  the  residence 
grounds,  he  welcomed  everybody*  He  even 
provided  a  lecturer  to  describe  his  collections 
to  any  gathering,  and  especially  to  young 
people  and  the  people  of  the  “Heinz  business 
family/'  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  had 
under  construction  an  addition  to  his  home, 
which  he  intended  to  call  the  Jade  Room, 
for  the  better  display  of  the  carvings*  Some 
of  the  finest  pieces  of  the  ivory  collection, 
and  the  watches,  were  given  to  the  Carnegie 
Museum  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  public* 

He  always  found  rest  and  peace  among 
them*  Many  long  evenings  were  spent  by 
him  arranging  and  re-arranging  them  to 
bring  out  their  most  charming  aspects*  Los¬ 
ing  himself  among  them,  all  labors  of  the 
day  were  forgotten,  and  when  he  turned 
away  at  last  from  the  beloved  cases,  he  was 
refreshed* 

His  favorite  companion  in  these  silent 
hours  of  adoration  was  a  house  man,  Otto 
Gruber,  who  had  been  in  his  employ  for 
twenty-two  years*  He  might  well  have  been 
called  “Otto  the  Silent/'  He  never  disturbed 


COLLECTING  ART  AND  ANTIQUES 

the  long  vigils  among  the  ivory  carvings  by 
a  word*  He  admired  them  equally  with  their 
owner,  and  was  as  happy  as  Mr*  Heinz  dur¬ 
ing  the  evenings  given  to  re-arranging  them* 
He  had  a  set  of  keys  to  the  cases — a  high  trust 
of  which  he  was  vastly  proud* 

For  more  than  three  months  after  Otto 
died,  the  ivory  cases  were  not  opened,  and 
Mr*  Heinz  would  not  disturb  a  thing  that  he 
and  Otto  had  handled  together  so  often* 
Ever  after,  he  kept  a  picture  of  the  faithful 
employee  on  the  wall  of  his  room* 


XV 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

WORK 

ONE  of  the  Pittsburgh  newspapers  com¬ 
menced  its  article  announcing  his  death  with 
these  words:  “Henry  J,  Heinz,  churchman, 
philanthropist,  manufacturer,  founder  and 
president  of  H*  J,  Heinz  Company/'  The 
emphasis  was  placed  correctly  when  he  was 
described  first  as  “churchman/' 

The  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University 
of  Pittsburgh,  in  the  resolution  of  sorrow 
for  his  death,  said:  “He  cared  for  art,  for 
beauty,  for  education,  for  good  citizenship, 
for  civic  betterment,  for  the  well-being  of 
people;  he  cared  for  the  great  business  of 
which  he  was  the  creator;  he  cared  supremely 
for  his  family,  for  his  country  and  for  other 
countries  also,  but  the  real  passion  of  his  life 
was  religion/' 

In  the  opening  paragraph  of  his  Will,  he 
declared:  “Looking  forward  to  the  time 
when  my  earthly  career  shall  end,  I  desire  to 
set  forth  at  the  very  beginning  of  this  Will, 

I 

1 89 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


as  the  most  important  item  in  it,  a  confes¬ 
sion  of  my  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  as  my 
Saviour*  I  also  desire  to  bear  witness  to  the 
fact  that  throughout  my  life,  in  which  there 
were  the  usual  joys  and  sorrows,  I  have  been 
wonderfully  sustained  by  my  faith  in  God 
through  Jesus  Christ*  This  legacy  was  left 
me  by  my  sacred  mother,  who  was  a  woman 
of  strong  faith,  and  to  it  I  attribute  any  suc¬ 
cess  I  may  have  attained  during  my  life*” 

It  was  his  mother  who  said  to  him  in  his 
youth:  “Henry,  I  have  only  one  piece  of 
advice  to  give  you  about  your  religion*  Do 
not  make  it  so  narrow  that  it  will  be  unat¬ 
tractive  to  others,  and  do  not  make  it  so 
broad  that  you  leave  yourself  no  foundation 
on  which  to  stand*” 

His  religion  was  a  base  on  which  he  stood 
foursquare — not  once  a  week,  but  seven 
days  a  week,  in  business  and  out  of  business* 
But  it  was  its  spirit  that  he  cared  for,  and  not 
ostentation  of  it*  He  offered  it  to  men,  but 
forced  it  on  none*  His  understanding  and 
respect  went  out  to  all  creeds* 

In  his  youth  he  was  an  adherent  of  the 
Lutheran  Church,  in  which  he  had  been 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


brought  up*  When  he  married,  his  wife  being 
a  United  Presbyterian,  they  compromised 
their  differences  of  view  as  to  denomination 
by  uniting  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  of  which  the  Reverend  E*  M*  Wood, 
who  had  married  them,  was  pastor*  In  1870 
Mr*  Heinz  became  a  steward,  and  in  1871 
was  chosen  Sunday  School  Superintendent 
and  Trustee* 

A  new  church  had  been  erected  and  was  to 
be  dedicated  soon  after  he  became  a  member* 
There  was  a  debt  of  $8000  to  be  provided 
for*  A  meeting  of  the  officials  was  held,  at 
which  he  was  present  because  he  was  a 
steward*  It  was  decided  to  ask,  from  those 
present,  for  five  subscriptions  of  two  hun¬ 
dred  dollars  each*  Most  of  the  persons  pres¬ 
ent  were  of  small  means,  and  subscriptions 
came  slowly*  But  finally  four  were  made* 
Mr*  Heinz  was  a  young  man,  recently  mar¬ 
ried,  and  struggling  to  get  a  foothold  in 
business*  He  did  some  serious  thinking  as 
the  subscriptions  were  being  taken*  He  real¬ 
ized  that  from  a  practical  business  point  of 
view  he  would  not  be  justified  in  pledging 
two  hundred  dollars,  when  he  did  not  have 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


it  or  know  where  he  could  get  it*  On  the 
other  hand,  he  recalled  a  pledge  he  had  made 
to  himself  when  he  entered  upon  religious 
life,  to  shirk  no  duty  and  to  contribute  his 
share  of  the  expense  of  the  work  of  the 
church*  He  balanced  the  two  points  of  view 
for  a  moment — business  prudence  versus  re¬ 
ligious  duty — and  ended  the  matter  by  mak¬ 
ing  the  subscription  of  $200*  When  his 
mother  learned  of  it,  her  sense  of  prudence 
and  economy  was  shocked,  pious  though  she 
was,  and  she  gently  chided  him*  He  told  her 
that  he  was  happy  in  what  he  had  done,  as 
he  had  obeyed  his  resolution,  adding,  “If  the 
Lord  wants  me  to  do  this,  he  will  show  me 
the  way  to  make  good  my  pledge*” 

The  following  Monday  evening  there  was 
a  meeting  of  a  building  and  loan  association, 
of  which  he  was  a  member*  It  was  the  custom 
to  select  by  lot  from  the  members,  once  a 
month,  five  who  would  be  privileged  to  bor¬ 
row  the  money  paid  in  during  the  month* 
Any  member  selected  who  did  not  wish  to 
borrow  immediately  could  sell  his  right  to 
another,  at  a  premium  which  was  usually 
$20  a  share* 


192 


Henry  J.  Heinz  with  Cradle  Roll  Representatives  at  State  Sunday  School  Convention,  York,  Penna.,  1916 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


The  first  name  drawn  was  that  of  Mr* 
Heinz*  As  he  arose  to  state  that  he  did  not 
wish  to  borrow  the  money,  another  member 
offered  him  $21  a  share  for  the  privilege* 
As  he  held  ten  shares,  this  meant  $210*  It 
flashed  into  his  mind  that  here  was  the  way 
to  meet  his  pledge  to  the  church,  and  the 
offer  was  quickly  accepted*  Although  his 
mother  lived  nearly  a  mile  away,  and  it  was 
after  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  he  hurried  to 
his  mother's  home,  to  exclaim:  “Mother, 
you  remember  my  pledge  to  the  church? 
Well,  the  Lord  has  provided  a  way  to  meet 
it,"  and  he  told  the  story*  The  circumstance 
deeply  impressed  him,  gave  a  set  to  his  con¬ 
viction  that  when  Christian  duty  called  it 
was  his  business  to  respond,  whether  he 
could  always  see  the  way  to  the  end  or  not, 
and  strengthened  him  in  his  purpose,  to 
which  he  adhered  during  all  his  life,  to  put 
his  trust  in  a  Higher  Power* 

In  the  following  year  they  decided  to  leave 
their  church  owing  to  a  split  in  the  congre¬ 
gation  over  the  question  of  a  choice  of  minis¬ 
ters  and  they  joined  the  Grace  Methodist 
Protestant  Church  near  their  home*  It  was 


193 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY -SCHOOL  WORK 


a  small  church  with  membership  largely  of 
the  kind  of  people  for  whom  he  always  had 
the  greatest  liking — the  kind  often  referred 
to  as  “plain  people*”  No  church  relation 
was  more  happy  and  fruitful  than  the  period 
of  almost  twenty  years  during  which  he 
worshipped  with  this  congregation*  Even 
after  he  removed  to  another  part  of  the  city, 
he  often  went  there*  On  the  Sunday  im¬ 
mediately  before  he  was  seized  with  his  fatal 
illness,  he  attended  its  service* 

After  removal  to  the  East  End  of  Pitts¬ 
burgh,  his  children  united  with  the  Presby¬ 
terian  Church  and  he  transferred  his  own 
membership  to  that  denomination,  joining 
the  East  Liberty  Presbyterian  Church,  where 
his  membership  continued  till  death. 

Lutheran,  Methodist  Episcopal,  Metho¬ 
dist  Protestant,  Presbyterian — these  many 
denominational  choices  were  not  vacillations. 
He  was  not  trying  different  creeds  and  forms 
to  see  which  he  would  like  best*  They  meant 
that  he  was  not  fettered  by  denominational- 
ism*  It  was  the  inner  life,  not  the  outer  form, 
that  he  cared  for*  The  man  who  “did  justly, 
loved  mercy  and  walked  humbly  with  God” 


194 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


was  in  his  view  a  Christian  whether  he  sub¬ 
scribed  to  all  the  rules  of  creed  or  not* 

His  business  was  a  monument  worthy  of 
his  service,  but  his  service  for  his  Master  is  a 
greater  monument  than  his  business. 

One  often  hears  it  said  that  a  business 
man,  at  least  one  who  deals  with  other  than 
small  affairs,  cannot  be  a  Christian.  It  is 
affirmed  that  there  is  an  irreconcilable  in- 
compatability  between  the  principles  of  busi¬ 
ness  and  the  teachings  of  Christ.  The  life  of 
such  a  man  as  Mr.  Heinz  is  an  answer  to  that 
theory.  He  made  a  success  of  his  business; 
he  made  a  success  of  his  Christian  living. 
There  was  no  lack  of  harmony  between 
them.  His  Christian  life  was  a  help  to  him 
in  his  business.  His  business  enabled  him  to 
make  his  Christian  life  effective  in  ways  of 
practical  service  to  others. 

From  earliest  manhood  he  believed  that 
the  Sunday  School  was  the  supremely  useful 
instrumentality  for  the  instruction  of  those 
whom  the  church  is  set  to  reach  and  rear; 
and  to  the  Sunday-school  movement,  local, 
national  and  international,  he  gave  altogether 
sixty-four  years  of  unbroken  and  unwearied 


i95 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


work*  In  many  respects,  he  made  it  the  lead¬ 
ing  labor  of  his  life* 

A  few  months  before  his  death  he  said: 

“From  my  early  boyhood  I  have  been 
a  member  of  the  Sunday  School*  In  my 
early  twenties,  I  was  a  teacher;  at  twenty- 
six,  Superintendent  of  a  village  school*  In 
middle  life  I  became  identified  with  the 
organized  Sunday-school  work* 

“To  the  child,  the  Sunday  School  is  a 
great  source  from  which  to  obtain  life's 
principles* 

“To  the  young  man  or  young  woman, 
either  as  scholar  or  teacher,  it  pays  the  great¬ 
est  reward  possible  for  the  time  and  means 
invested* 

“To  one  in  middle  life  it  is  a  constant 
inspiration,  while  in  ripe  years  it  is  the 
greatest  influence  in  sustaining  one's  hope 
and  faith  in  immortality* 

“To  my  mind,  the  Sunday  School  is  the 
world's  greatest  living  force  for  character 
building  and  good  citizenship*  It  has  paid 
me  the  largest  dividends  of  any  investment 
I  ever  made*  I  bear  testimony  that  in  my 
own  life  the  Sunday  School  has  been  an  in¬ 
fluence  and  an  inspiration  second  only  to 
that  of  a  consecrated  mother*" 


196 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


This  testimony  was  based  on  an  experi¬ 
ence  beginning  in  1854  and  continuing  to 
1919  as  shown  by  the  record  that  follows: 

IN  LOCAL  SCHOOL 

Scholar  ♦  12  years  1854—1866 

Secretary,  Treasurer, 

Teacher  and  Su¬ 
perintendent  ♦  .  25  years  1870—1895 

IN  ORGANIZATION  WORK 
ALLEGHENY  COUNTY  SABBATH  SCHOOL 

ASSOCIATION 

Director  .  26  years  1893—1919 

President  .  ♦  .  4  years  1898—1902 

PENNSYLVANIA  STATE  SABBATH  SCHOOL 

ASSOCIATION 

Director  ♦  24  years  1895—1919 

President  .  ♦  ♦  13  years  1906—1919 

INTERNATIONAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 
ASSOCIATION 
Member  of  Executive 

Committee  .  ♦  1 7  years  1902— 1919 

Vice-President  .  .  1  year  1918—1919 

WORLD'S  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  ASSOCIATION 
Member  Executive 

Committee  .  .  15  years  1904— 1919 

Chairman  Executive 

Committee  ♦  ♦  6  years  1913— 1919 


197 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY -SCHOOL  WORK 

His  Sunday-school  apprenticeship  was  as 
a  member  of  the  Pastor's  class  in  the 
Lutheran  Sunday  School  of  Sharpsburg*  His 
election  as  Superintendent  in  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  School  was  the  beginning 
of  twenty-five  years  of  valuable  work  in  the 
local  Sunday-school  field*  He  was  working 
sixteen  hours  and  more  in  his  business,  but 
he  managed  to  give  so  much  time  and  energy 
to  the  Superintendent's  office  that  he  in¬ 
spired  pastor,  teachers  and  pupils  alike* 
After  Mr*  Heinz'  death,  a  Sunday-school 
Superintendent  told  how,  when  he  was  a 
small  boy,  Mr*  Heinz  had  given  him  books 
and  other  help*  “This  was  at  the  busiest 
time  of  his  career,"  he  said,  “when  he  was 
laying  the  foundations  of  his  business,  yet 
he  had  time  to  talk  to  a  boy  of  eight  years 
about  his  affairs  and  future,  and  he  had  time 
to  talk  to  boys  and  girls  in  our  Sunday 
School*" 

When  organized  Sunday-school  work 
began  to  develop,  he  saw  its  possibilities*  He 
became  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  Allegheny  County  Sabbath  School 
Association,  and  five  years  later,  in  1898, 


198 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


became  President,  holding  office  for  four 
successive  yearly  terms*  A  strong  organiza¬ 
tion  was  built  up*  Men  of  business  influence 
were  attracted  to  the  Association*  Head¬ 
quarters  were  established  in  a  dignified  office 
building*  He  brought  a  specialist  from  Min¬ 
neapolis  to  organize  a  Survey,  or,  as  it  was 
called  then,  a  House-to-House  Canvass,  to 
find  out  what  the  field  for  Sunday-school 
work  in  Pittsburgh  was — how  many  chil¬ 
dren  were  not  in  the  Sunday  School,  how 
many  people  were  unattached  to  any  church, 
etc* 

The  people  to  do  the  work  were  recruited 
among  the  city's  Sunday  Schools*  T wo  thou¬ 
sand  canvassers  were  drilled  and  trained*  Co¬ 
operation  of  the  pastors  of  all  the  churches 
was  obtained*  The  interest  of  the  press  was 
awakened,  in  order  to  help  the  work  by 
making  the  people  sympathetic  toward  it* 
On  a  day  in  April,  1 899,  the  efforts  resulted 
in  a  canvass  of  half  a  million  people,  liv¬ 
ing  in  83,000  homes,  and  a  great  mass  of 
religious  data  was  thereafter  available  to  all 
those  interested  in  church  movements* 


199 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


At  the  end  of  the  canvass,  he  gave  a  ban¬ 
quet  to  the  directors  and  presidents  of  the 
forty-two  districts  into  which  the  County 
had  been  divided*  He  said  in  his  address: 


“We  realize  more  and  more  our  depen¬ 
dence  upon  the  great  head  of  the  church. 
We  have  all  the  time  there  is,  and  we  are 
responsible  to  the  Maker  and  Giver  of  time, 
as  to  how  we  use  it.  There  can  be  no  more 
profitable  way  of  spending  it  than  to  teach, 
encourage  and  inspire  the  youth  of  our 
county  during  their  impressionable  years. 
Horace  Mann  once  said:  'When  anything  is 
growing,  one  former  is  worth  a  thousand 
reformers/  We  love  the  Sunday-school 
work  more  and  more,  because  we  realize  its 
possibilities,  since  the  young  men  and 
women  of  today  will  not  only  be  the 
fathers  and  mothers  of  the  present  genera¬ 
tion,  but  of  generations  to  come.  We 
have  succeeded  marvelously  well  in  our 
house-to-house  visitation  of  our  city.  We 
have  not  only  placed  our  Protestant  de¬ 
nominations  in  position  to  do  better  and 
more  effective  work,  but  have  secured  data 
that  will  enable  the  Catholic  Church  to  do 
the  same.  We  each  do  our  work  in  our  own 
way,  but  both  stand  for  nothing  less  than 
character  building  and  good  citizenship/' 


200 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


In  1 895  a  business  trip  took  him  to  Wil¬ 
liamsport,  Pennsylvania,  where  the  Penn¬ 
sylvania  State  Sabbath  School  Association 
was  holding  its  convention*  He  entered  the 
hall  just  as  John  Wanamaker,  then  serving 
his  first  year  as  President,  was  appealing  for 
subscriptions  to  meet  a  deficit  of  $600,  con¬ 
cluding  with  the  declaration  that  unless  a 
budget  system  was  adopted  and  the  Associa¬ 
tion  kept  free  from  debt,  he  would  never 
attend  another  convention, 

Mr,  Heinz,  though  a  stranger,  and  only  a 
chance  visitor,  arose  and  said:  “Mr,  Presi¬ 
dent,  if  you  will  stand  by  that  principle,  and 
pay  as  you  go,  and  not  use  the  time  of  your 
conventions  in  raising  deficits,  you  may  put 
me  down  for  $100,” 

When  asked  for  his  name,  he  wrote  his 
initials  on  a  slip  and  passed  it  to  the  plat¬ 
form,  saying  that  he  would  give  his  name  to 
the  teller  later.  He  had  wished  to  help,  not 
to  thrust  his  personality  forward.  The 
incident,  however,  led  to  his  election  to  the 
Executive  Committee,  starting  a  service  of 
twenty-four  years  in  the  State  work,  nine  of 
which  were  as  Chairman  of  the  Executive 


201 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 

Committee,  and  thirteen  years  as  President 
of  the  Association,  following  Mr*  Wana- 
maker,  who  retired  after  twelve  years  of 
office,  nominating  Mr*  Heinz  as  his  suc¬ 
cessor* 

During  more  than  twenty  years,  he  trav¬ 
eled  across  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  from 
Pittsburgh  to  Philadelphia,  once  a  month, 
ten  months  in  the  year,  except  when  absent 
from  the  United  States,  to  be  present  at  the 
monthly  meeting  of  the  Directors  of  the 
State  Association* 

There  was  steady  expansion  of  the  work, 
and  the  budget  necessarily  grew,  but  good 
organization  and  sustained  enthusiasm  ad¬ 
mirably  facilitated  financing*  At  one  time, 
something  like  fifteen,  Counties  failed  to 
pledge  anything  toward  the  budget*  Mr* 
Heinz  arose  and  said  that  no  County  should 
appear  on  the  Association  books  with  noth¬ 
ing  to  its  credit*  “If  you  will  permit  me,” 
he  added,  “I  will  contribute  $25  for  each 
County  that  has  not  responded*”  The  Gen¬ 
eral  Secretary  of  the  Association,  Mr*  Landes, 
resolved  to  ask  these  Counties  to  pay  the 
pledges  made  by  Mr*  Heinz*  He  went  into 


202 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


one,  and  was  told :  “Well,  the  folks  are  pretty 
poor  down  here*  Mr*  Heinz  has  a  good  deal 
of  money*  I  guess  we'll  let  him  pay  for  us*" 

Mr*  Landes  reported  to  Mr*  Heinz,  who 
laughed  and  replied:  “I  will  guarantee  that 
won't  happen  again*  They  will  be  ashamed*" 
He  was  right*  Within  two  years  every 
County  was  offering  and  meeting  its  pledges, 
and  many  increased  the  amounts  year  after 
year* 

During  his  administration,  with  the  capa¬ 
ble  and  energetic  men  who  co-operated  with 
him,  the  Association  became  owner  of  the 
splendid  property  on  Arch  Street,  Philadel¬ 
phia,  being  the  first  Sunday  School  Associa¬ 
tion  in  the  world  to  possess  its  own  head¬ 
quarters  building*  The  financial  receipts 
increased  from  $12,000  a  year  in  1903  to 
$34,000  a  year  in  1 9 1 8*  The  membership  of 
Adult  Bible  Classes  reached  372,000*  The 
Teacher  Training  Department,  esteemed  of 
vital  importance  by  him,  exceeded  that  of 
any  other  State  in  the  number  of  teachers 
graduated*  In  general,  the  Pennsylvania 
State  Sabbath  School  Association  was 
brought  to  the  place  where  it  was  conceded 


203 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY  "SCHOOL  WORK 


to  lead  all  the  States  in  Sunday-school  work* 
Each  of  the  sixty-seven  Counties  today 
maintains  an  annual  convention* 

In  1899  he  was  made  the  representative 
of  Pennsylvania  on  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  International  Sunday  School  Associa¬ 
tion,  embracing  the  North  American  conti¬ 
nent*  Later  he  became  a  trustee,  and  in  1918 
a  vice-president* 

His  first  vision  of  the  world-wide  pos¬ 
sibilities  of  the  Sunday  School  came  to  him 
while  traveling  with  his  son  in  the  Orient, 
in  1902,  when,  as  the  unofficial  representa¬ 
tive  of  a  Mission  Board,  he  visited  missions, 
and  at  the  request  of  certain  Sunday-school 
leaders  also  investigated  the  status  of  Sun¬ 
day-school  work* 

In  his  report,  read  at  the  Denver  conven¬ 
tion  of  the  International  Association,  he 
said:  “Japan  is  the  key  to  the  Orient*  The 
work  done  through  this  Sunday-school 
movement  and  through  the  missionaries  in 
this  ambitious,  progressive  country  will  be 
looked  upon  with  favor  by  the  neighboring 
people  of  Korea  and  China*  It  is  'judicious 
advertising'  of  the  great  Sunday-school 


204 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


movement,  destined  to  become  world-wide 
in  its  scope  and  of  blessed  results/* 

At  the  Toronto  convention  in  1905  he 
expressed  his  faith  in  the  Japanese,  pointed 
to  the  strategy  of  winning  Japan  for  the 
Sunday  School,  and  concluded  by  pledging 
$  1 000  a  year  for  three  years  toward  the  sup¬ 
port  of  a  worker  in  that  country* 

Frank  L.  Brown  was  delegated  to  go  to 
Japan  and  promote  the  organization  of  the 
Japanese  National  Sunday  School  Associa¬ 
tion*  He  reported  to  the  convention  of  1907 
in  Rome,  when  it  was  decided  to  organize 
the  World's  Sunday  School  Association  for 
world-wide  work,  and  to  provide  for  a  Sun¬ 
day-school  Missionary  tour  around  the 
world  to  make  a  survey* 

In  1 9 1 3,  at  the  head  of  twenty-nine  busi¬ 
ness  men  and  Sunday-school  experts,  Mr* 
Heinz  led  the  way  to  the  Orient,  and  devoted 
five  months  to  a  campaign  through  Japan, 
Korea  and  China,  visiting  more  than  seventy 
cities,  meeting  statesmen  and  others  of  prom¬ 
inence,  and  holding  daily  conferences  and 
meetings*  Frank  L*  Brown  has  described 


205 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 

this  trip  in  his  book,  “The  Tour  of  the 
Orient/' 

The  tour  party  proceeded  to  the  Conven¬ 
tion  of  the  World's  Association  which  met 
in  Zurich  in  June,  1913*  Mr*  Heinz  was 
hailed  as  a  Christian  statesman  and  leader, 
and  chosen  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Com¬ 
mittee,  an  international  honor  that  well 
crowned  his  Sunday-school  career  of  more 
than  half  a  century* 

Returning  from  his  around-the-world 
trip,  he  built  a  Sunday-school  office  at  his 
residence  and  employed  a  Sunday-school 
Secretary  to  enable  him  to  push  the  work 
incumbent  on  his  new  position*  The  party 
had  made  so  favorable  an  impression  in 
Japan  that  the  convention  for  1916  was  in¬ 
vited  to  Tokio,  but  the  world  war  caused 
postponement* 

No  small  part  of  every  day  was  devoted 
ungrudgingly  to  what  he  had  come  to  regard 
as  an  enterprise  worthy  of  his  best*  In  the 
midst  of  his  activity  and  planning,  with  rail¬ 
road  tickets  in  his  pocket  to  go  to  New  York 
for  a  conference  on  the  world-work  and  on 
the  Tokio  convention,  he  was  smitten  with 


206 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 

pneumonia ;  and  on  May  14,  1919,  the  wires 
sent  the  tidings  around  the  world  that  his 
place  was  vacant* 

With  characteristic  foresight,  that  his  pass¬ 
ing  should  not  deprive  the  work  he  loved 
of  some  contribution  from  his  hand,  he  had 
made  bequests  in  his  Will: 

To  the  Allegheny  County  Sabbath 

School  Association  ♦  .  .  .  $  50,000 


To  the  Pennsylvania  State  Sabbath 


School  Association  . 

75,000 

To  the  International  Sunday 

School  Association  * 

75,000 

To  the  World's  Sunday  School 

Association  . . 

100,000 

He  provided  that  in  each  case  the  sum  be 
invested  in  investments  legal  for  trustees,  the 
income  to  be  used  for  the  regular  work  of 
the  Association  as  it  shall  deem  proper. 

He  bequeathed  $250,000  to  the  Univer¬ 
sity  of  Pittsburgh,  in  memory  of  his  mother, 
to  be  used  for  religious  training  of  the  stu¬ 
dents — $  1 50,000  to  be  used  for  the  erection 
of  a  building,  and  $  1 00,000  for  the  mainte¬ 
nance  of  a  chair  to  be  devoted  to  the  training 
of  Sunday-school  teachers  and  instructors  in 


207 


RELIGION  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 


Sunday-school  work  generally*  He  wrote: 
“I  am  led  to  make  this  provision  because  of 
my  appreciation  of  the  value  of  teacher¬ 
training  work  conducted  by  the  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  State  Sabbath  School  Association*” 
His  death  brought  expressions  of  sorrow 
and  dismay  from  all  parts  of  the  world  where 
men  were  engaged  in  the  work  that  he  had  so 
long  and  so  enthusiastically  fathered*  In 
scores  of  solemn  memorial  services  there  was 
recognition  of  his  sixty-four  years  of  faith¬ 
ful  effort  for  the  building  of  character  in  the 
youth  of  his  own  land  and  of  other  lands* 
A  tender  demonstration  of  affection  was  the 
journey  of  a  representative  of  the  two  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  Japanese  Sunday-school 
members  to  Pittsburgh,  to  lay  a  wreath  on 
the  tomb  of  the  man  who  had  taken  to  his 
heart  the  children  of  Japan* 


208 


Sarah  Heinz  House,  Built  by  Henry  J.  Heinz  as  a  Memorial  to  His  Wife 


XVI 

CITIZEN 

THE  measure  of  worthiness  is  helpfulness* 
We  have  learned  to  test  men  not  by  birth, 
nor  by  intellectual  power,  nor  by  wealth,  but 
by  service*  Ancestry  is  noble  if  the  good  sur¬ 
vives  in  him  who  boasts  of  his  forebears* 
Intellectual  force  is  worthy  if  it  can  escape 
from  conceit*  Wealth  is  not  to  be  despised  if 
it  is  untainted  and  consecrated*  But  they  are 
sunk  into  insignificance  when  character  is 
considered;  for  character  is  the  child  of  self- 
denial  and  love*  The  man  who  lives  for 
others,  and  who  has  a  heart  big  enough  to 
take  all  men  into  its  living  sympathies — he 
is  the  man  who  has  a  real  conception  of  true 
citizenship* 

His  idea  of  citizenship  was  something  to 
be  expressed  not  merely  in  political  direc¬ 
tions*  As  he  did  not  separate  his  religious  life, 
his  business  life  and  his  home  life,  so  he  did 
not  set  his  duties  of  citizenship  apart*  They 
meant  to  him  citizenship  in  all  affairs  of 
life,  every  day  and  all  day,  year  in  and 
year  out* 


209 


CITIZEN 


There  was  no  man  more  proud  of  being  a 
citizen  of  the  Republic,  and  no  man  more 
loyal  to  Nation,  State  and  City*  His  way  of 
showing  it  was  to  perform  those  duties  that 
were  next  to  his  hand;  and  because  his  way 
of  service  was  to  put  his  own  shoulder  to  the 
wheel,  his  mind  was  most  given  to  those  bet¬ 
terments  that  can  be  brought  about  by  men 
acting  on  and  with  each  other  directly  in  the 
every-day  occupations  of  life*  Therefore 
most  of  the  public  and  semi-public  offices 
that  he  filled  were  offices  that  would  enable 
him  to  exercise  personal  influence  and  give 
personal  labor*  His  extraordinary  vital  en¬ 
ergy  enabled  him  to  carry  these  additional 
duties  as  briskly  as  if  each  were  the  only  one* 
He  never  grew  old  enough  to  be  willing  to  act 
as  figure-head* 

He  gave  time  and  energy  to  the  board  of 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  similar  or¬ 
ganizations*  He  served  as  director  in  banks 
and  other  institutions  where  his  chief  or  only 
incentive  was  the  responsibility  of  trustee¬ 
ship*  Besides  his  widely  branching  duties  in 
church  work  and  the  social  and  community 
work  related  to  it,  he  was  a  member  of  the 


210 


CITIZEN 


board  of  the  Western  Pennsylvania  Hospital, 
the  Tuberculosis  League,  and  many  other 
such  public  services*  Early  in  his  business 
life  he  became  director  and  a  moving  spirit 
in  the  Western  Pennsylvania  Exposition 
Society,  which  did  so  much  for  community 
benefit  and  during  the  last  fifteen  years  of 
his  life  he  was  its  vice-president* 

He  had  small  fondness  for  political  quar¬ 
rels,  but  he  never  shirked  a  fight  when  one 
was  called  for*  One  of  these  political  battles 
was  for  the  annexation  of  Allegheny  to 
Pittsburgh,  in  the  Greater  Pittsburgh  cam¬ 
paign  of  1905*  The  political  machine  that 
ruled  Allegheny  was  red  hot  against  it,  and  it 
had  power  which  Mr*  Heinz  did  not  under¬ 
estimate*  He  knew  very  well  that  the  location 
of  the  Heinz  plant  in  Allegheny  rendered 
him  open  to  reprisals  in  all  forms,  from  op¬ 
pressive  taxation  to  other  punitive  measures* 
Despite  this,  he  took  the  chairmanship  of  a 
meeting  of  those  Allegheny  citizens  who 
favored  the  Greater  Pittsburgh  legisla¬ 
tion,  and  amid  menacing  objections  from 
adherents  of  Allegheny  office-holders,  he 
succeeded  in  holding  the  meeting  together  till 


CITIZEN 


it  had  adopted  a  resolution  calling  on  the 
Legislature  to  pass  the  bill*  So  well  was  this 
demand  fortified  by  the  names  of  prominent 
business  men  that  this  meeting  always  has 
been  credited  with  having  done  invaluable 
work  for  the  success  of  the  movement*  Mr* 
Heinz  had  been  a  leader  in  the  Greater  Pitts¬ 
burgh  movement  for  years  and  had  served 
on  the  central  committee* 

Another  hard  civic  fight  was  his  fight 
against  evil,  organized  and  unorganized, 
when  he  decided  to  clean  up  a  dwelling  dis¬ 
trict  near  the  Heinz  plant,  and  make  it  fit  for 
laboring  people  of  small  earning  power  to 
live  in*  It  was  known  as  a  “red  light”  dis¬ 
trict,  and  real-estate  men,  as  well  as  police 
and  other  city  officials,  told  him  that  he  was 
undertaking  an  impossible  task* 

He  purchased  quietly  till,  in  the  course  of 
two  years,  he  possessed  several  hundred  prop¬ 
erties*  As  the  regular  real-estate  men  were  so 
sure  that  he  could  not  succeed,  he  established 
his  own  real-estate  department,  opening  two 
offices  with  staffs  of  office  men  and  repair 
men*  Trained  investigators,  aided  at  times 
by  detectives  hired  by  him,  were  sent  to  get 


CITIZEN 


the  facts  necessary  to  drive  out  objectionable 
tenants  and  to  make  sure  of  good  ones  in 
their  place*  “Go  back  through  their  records 
for  fifteen  years,  if  necessary,”  he  told  them, 
“so  that  weTl  be  sure  of  every  tenant*” 
When  he  got  the  right  tenants,  he  kept 
them*  He  kept  them  by  the  simple  device  of 
making  repairs  before  they  were  requested, 
and  making  improvements,  big  and  little, 
which  no  tenant  of  that  class  ever  would 
have  dreamed  of  getting*  The  word  was 
passed  around*  The  district  became  a  home 
district  of  decent  people*  Its  whole  appear¬ 
ance  was  changed*  And  greatly  to  his  delight, 
he  was  able  to  demonstrate  to  the  doubting 
Thomases  that  it  worked  out  practically  as 
well  as  ethically*  Before  his  time,  the  nature 
of  the  tenancy  had  caused  fluctuating  habi¬ 
tation  with  a  vacancy  of  about  twenty  per 
cent,  added  to  which  was  the  loss  of  rents 
from  those  who  flitted  without  notice*  The 
net  income  from  the  properties,  despite  the 
fact  that  nothing  or  next  to  nothing  had 
been  expended  on  them  for  repairs,  had  been 
less  than  one  per  cent*  Mr*  Heinz  could  point 
to  a  record  of  no  vacancies  at  all,  rentals  paid 


CITIZEN 


regularly,  and  a  net  income  of  five  or  six 
per  cent,  all  created  by  management,  to  the 
benefit  of  landlord  and  tenants,  both* 

He  was  sixty-five  years  old  when  he  thus 
entered  a  business  new  to  him,  and  success¬ 
fully  devised  a  way  of  his  own  to  conduct  it* 
While  he  still  was  building  the  district  up, 
he  was  called  upon  to  become  Chairman  of 
the  Pittsburgh  Flood  Commission,  to  seek  a 
definite  method  for  controlling  the  rivers 
whose  erratic  behavior  so  often  made  wide 
destruction*  He  accepted  enthusiastically*  It 
was  a  service  that  brought  into  play  all  those 
qualities  predominant  in  him— hatred  of 
waste,  analytical  study  for  basic  causes,  con¬ 
structiveness*  Hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars  were  raised  by  public  subscription  to 
augment  the  appropriations  from  City, 
County  and  State*  At  his  own  expense  he 
went  to  Europe  to  study  flood-control,  re¬ 
turning  with  a  mass  of  invaluable  reports 
and  technical  information*  A  complete  sur¬ 
vey  was  made  of  the  watersheds  of  the  Ohio 
and  the  Allegheny  with  their  tributaries* 
Great  manufacturers  and  merchants,  real- 
estate  owners  and  engineers,  all  joined  as 


CITIZEN 


members  of  the  commission  to  make  it  a 
work  as  thorough  as  any  ever  done  in  the 
United  States* 

The  plan,  as  finally  presented,  provided 
for  a  radical  and  definite  elimination  of 
flood-water,  but  necessarily  it  was  a  plan 
that  went  far  beyond  what  the  City  of  Pitts¬ 
burgh,  or  even  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
could  do  alone,  because  the  watersheds  lay, 
in  part,  in  other  States*  The  magnitude  of 
the  project  was  so  enormous  that  its  sponsors 
knew  very  well  that  many  years  must  pass 
before  even  a  beginning  could  be  made,  for 
aside  from  the  financial  problem,  the  legal 
aspects  demanded  action  by  the  Federal  Gov¬ 
ernment  as  well  as  co-operation  from  various 
neighboring  States*  Mr*  Heinz  hardly  ex¬ 
pected  to  see  the  work  begun  in  his  lifetime, 
but  he  took  great  pride  in  the  report  and  the 
plans,  feeling  that  ultimately  they  should 
lead  to  a  colossal  modern  work  of  reclama¬ 
tion  and  conservation  which  will  be  a  monu¬ 
ment  to  American  engineering  science  and 
vision* 

Another  communal  activity  that  gave  him 
enduring  happiness  was  the  work  of  the 


CITIZEN 


Western  Pennsylvania  Exposition  Society, 
which,  in  its  time,  did  great  service  for  com¬ 
munity  improvement*  He  was  particularly 
interested  in  its  musical  program,  for,  though 
he  was  without  musical  training,  he  had  a 
vivid  perception  of  the  cultural  influence  of 
music.  As  the  price  of  admission  to  the  whole 
Exposition  (which  lasted  two  months  each 
year)  was  only  twenty-five  cents,  he  saw  the 
opportunity  for  bringing  classical  music  and 
great  artists  to  the  people.  He  was  not  afraid 
of  “going  over  their  heads,” 

Colonel  J,  M,  Schoonmaker,  who  was 
Chairman  of  the  Music  Committee,  in  tell¬ 
ing  how  Mr.  Heinz  inspired  the  idea  of  of¬ 
fering  a  type  of  music  higher  than  the  cus¬ 
tomary  bands,  told  this  story:  “The  first 
great  artist  we  had  was  Materna.  She  had  a 
magnificent  voice,  there  was  a  great  audience, 
and  she  sang  most  beautifully.  But  it  was 
plain  to  me  that  her  music  was  away  above 
the  heads  of  the  people.  I  tried  to  start  the 
applause,  but  it  did  not  draw  much.  There 
were  two  great  big  fellows  near  me  who 
didn't  applaud,  and  I  heard  one  say:  'Oh 
- ,  I'd  rather  hear - /  mentioning  a  very 


CITIZEN 


ordinary  singer  of  popular  songs*  I  told  my 
story  to  Mr*  Heinz,  saying  I  was  afraid  that 
we  had  made  a  big  mistake*  He  smiled  and 
said:  'Go  ahead*  We  will  get  a  music-loving 
community  by  and  by*  We  will  educate  the 
people  up  to  good  music/  We  took  his 
advice,  and  it  will  be  recollected  what  good 
music  we  had  at  the  expositions,  and  the 
many  great  artists  who  appeared*  The  peo¬ 
ple  enjoyed  Damrosch,  for  instance,  for  a 
whole  afternoon  or  evening  for  twenty-five 
cents  instead  of  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents* 
A  musical  atmosphere,  with  the  refinements 
that  go  with  it,  grew  up  in  our  community; 
and  it  was  due  largely  to  Mr*  Heinz'  nerve 
and  vision*" 

A  child  problem  that  was  very  close  to 
him  was  that  of  the  children  in  the  district 
around  the  plant — not  merely  in  the  prop¬ 
erties  owned  by  him,  but  in  the  whole  area* 
Their  pleasures  and  opportunities  were  piti¬ 
ably  small,  for  their  parents  were  mostly 
of  the  unskilled  laboring  class*  He  started  a 
canvass  of  the  number  of  children,  their  ages 
and  other  facts,  to  get  the  basis  for  a  plan* 
While  he  was  revolving  various  ideas,  he  had 


CITIZEN 


an  interesting  little  psychological  experience* 
He  dreamed  that  his  son  Howard,  then  at 
Yale,  had  come  to  him  with  a  proposal  to 
undertake  this  community  task* 

It  was,  of  course,  wholly  logical  that  to  a 
mind  occupied  with  the  problem  there  should 
come  such  a  solution  in  a  dream,  for  he  and 
his  son  had  long  been  intimately  united  in 
thoughts  and  purposes*  There  was,  however, 
a  coincidence  that  gave  it  a  touch  of  the  un¬ 
usual*  A  day  or  two  after  the  dream,  he 
received  a  letter  from  Yale,  in  which  the  son 
asked  permission  to  start  the  club  work  for 
boys  in  the  factory  neighborhood* 

In  1 90 1  Howard  Heinz  began  in  what  he 
described  later  as  “a  couple  of  rooms,  a  kitch¬ 
en,  and  a  bath  tub*”  It  was  named  “The 
Covode  House,”  in  memory  of  Jacob  Covode 
of  Sharpsburg,  who  had  been  Mr*  Heinz' 
staunch  friend  when  friendship  was  sorely 
needed  back  in  the  panic  of  '76*  The  work 
began  with  a  few  boys  gathered  from  the 
alleys*  It  grew  so  fast,  its  young  founder 
could  hardly  keep  up  with  it*  His  father 
pursued  his  usual  strategy — allowed  him  to 
bear  all  the  responsibility,  acted  as  if  he  did 


CITIZEN 


not  see  the  duties  and  labors  piling  up,  and 
yet  managed  to  participate  in  the  club  life 
and  to  supply  the  necessary  means  without 
undermining  initiative*  In  fact,  the  history 
of  that  beginning,  told  in  all  its  smaller  de¬ 
tails,  would  make  an  illuminating  chapter 
in  the  science  of  social  experiments* 

The  two  rooms  grew  to  a  couple  of  mod¬ 
erately  sized  buildings*  Several  hundred 
boys  were  being  looked  after,  and  the  staff 
had  grown  from  the  one  young  college  man 
to  a  number  of  workers*  When  the  idea  of  a 
similar  club  for  girls  presented  itself  as  the 
next  stage  in  development,  Mr*  Heinz  per¬ 
ceived  that  the  opportunity  had  arrived  for 
carrying  out  a  deep,  fond  intention — that  of 
erecting  a  memorial  to  his  departed  wife  that 
should  truly  typify  what  her  life  had  repre¬ 
sented*  There  could  be  none  more  truly  and 
beautifully  expressive  of  her,  whose  great 
heart  had  gone  out  to  every  unfortunate 
child,  than  a  building  to  house  fittingly  and 
nobly  the  work  that  her  son  had  founded* 
So  it  was  that  there  arose,  on  the  corner  of 
Ohio  and  Heinz  Streets,  a  building  named 


219 


CITIZEN 


Sarah  Heinz  House,  bearing  on  its  front 
a  tablet  with  the  inscription: 

DEDICATED  TO 
YOUTH  RECREATION 

CHARACTER  SERVICE 

One  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  long 
and  sixty  feet  deep,  its  three  stories  and  base¬ 
ment  contain  club  rooms,  game  rooms,  li¬ 
brary,  gymnasium,  swimming  pool  and  all 
other  requirements  of  a  modern,  thoroughly 
equipped  social  settlement  house. 

So  happily  designed  that  it  expresses  the 
grace  and  quiet  beauty  of  its  purpose,  it  stands 
as  a  memorial  to  a  good  woman  and  also  as 
an  embodiment  of  family  citizenship.  As 
Mr.  Heinz  said  at  the  time  of  its  dedication 
on  June  6,  1915: 

“This  is  a  happy  day  to  me.  I  have 
looked  forward  to  the  erection  of  some 
such  house  as  this  for  a  long  time.  For 
years  I  held  the  corner  lot  here  in  reserve 
for  this  purpose.  As  my  ideas  grew  more 
definite,  I  realized  that  the  corner  lot  would 
be  too  small.  I  saw  it  would  be  necessary 
to  buy  adjoining  houses  and  lots,  and  clear 
away  the  houses  to  give  the  room  needed. 


220 


CITIZEN 


There  was  a  bit  of  selfishness  in  it,  too, 
I  admit.  The  pleasure  received  in  carrying 
out  a  conception  is  proportioned  to  the 
completeness  with  which  the  embodiment 
of  the  ideal  corresponds  to  the  ideal  itself. 
This  sort  of  pleasure  is  the  fountain  at 
which  youth  is  renewed.  I  desire  to  grow 
younger  as  the  years  go  by.  Why  should  I 
not  receive  the  enjoyment  that  comes  from 
working  to  realize  a  building  so  complete 
that  it  would  not  fall  short  of  the  ideal 
that  inspired  its  erection?  This  thought  in¬ 
fluenced  me  so  much  that  I  took  a  year 
longer  in  planning  and  constructing  this 
building  than  first  intended.  I  studied  other 
buildings  designed  for  a  similar  purpose.  I 
desired  that  this  building  would  compare 
with  the  best  in  the  land,  and  be  as  well 
adapted  to  its  purpose  as  human  wisdom 
could  make  it. 

“I  do  not  know  what  percentage  of  the 
young  people  connected  with  this  work  is 
Protestant  or  what  percentage  is  Catholic. 
Furthermore,  I  do  not  want  to  know.  No 
sectarian  bias  will  influence  the  work  of 
this  institution.  We  want  to  make  this  a 
factory  for  character  building  and  good 
citizenship.  It  is  our  desire  to  surround  the 
boys  and  girls  of  this  neighborhood  with 
such  good  influences  that  they  will  never 


221 


CITIZEN 


want  to  depart  from  the  right  paths.  Good 
citizenship  is  the  purpose  that  we  shall 
keep  in  view.  Character,  which  is  the  out¬ 
growth  of  honor,  will  be  the  goal  of  our 
endeavors.” 


His  conception  of  his  duty  as  a  citizen 
was  not  narrowed  to  his  own  city.  In  one 
instance  it  was  wide  enough  to  reach  out 
beyond  his  country  and  include  a  foreign 
land.  He  always  deprecated  the  jingoism 
displayed  by  the  yellow  press  in  the  discus¬ 
sion  of  the  relations  between  our  country 
and  Japan,  His  visit  to  Japan  in  1913  with 
the  Sunday  School  Commission  was  made 
an  occasion  to  put  to  the  front  at  every  op¬ 
portunity  the  thought  of  peace  between  the 
countries.  As  more  than  seventy  cities  were 
visited  and  contact  had  with  leading  citizens, 
he  saw  an  opportunity  to  say  a  word  for 
peace,  and  it  was  said  with  a  sincerity  that 
brought  similar  response  from  such  men  as 
Count  Okuma,  later  premier;  Baron  (now 
Viscount)  Shibusawa;  and  other  men  of 
high  position  who  guided  public  opinion  in 
Japan.  The  key-note  of  the  many  addresses 
he  made  on  this  tour  was  that  sounded  in  an 


222 


CITIZEN 


address  before  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  at 
Tokio,  at  a  banquet  given  in  honor  of  the 
American  guests,  when  he  said:  “We  come  to 
you  with  a  message  of  good  will  and  friend¬ 
ship*  In  our  relations  with  you  as  a  nation  our 
Republic  has  stood  for  peace,  from  the  days 
of  Commodore  Perry,  to  whom  you  opened 
your  ports,  to  the  time  of  President  Roosevelt 
and  the  treaty  of  Portsmouth,  and  of  Presi¬ 
dent  Taft,  who  has  sought  to  make  war 
between  great  nations  impossible*  And  this 
has  been  the  attitude  of  your  great  Empire, 
whose  three  wars  in  the  last  two  centuries 
have  been  in  self-defense  and  for  national 
honor*  At  times  agitators  have  sought  to  dis¬ 
turb  our  peaceful  relations,  but  the  American 
people  are  determined  that  our  friendship 
shall  remain  undisturbed*” 


223 


Dinner  Tendered  to  Henry  J.  Heinz  on  His  Seventieth  Birthday 


XVII 


READING  THE  RECORD 

The  life  of  Henry  J.  Heinz  was  a  long  life, 
and  it  was  a  life  whose  record  was  open  for 
all  men  to  read*  When  he  passed,  they  ren¬ 
dered  their  verdict  in  the  tongues  of  many 
races,  and  from  many  aspects  of  human 
thought*  But  anywhere  and  everywhere  it 
was  the  same*  And  in  no  way  was  it  different 
from  the  verdicts  that  men  had  uttered  while 
he  still  lived* 

For  his  seventieth  birthday  some  old 
friends  with  his  son  Howard  arranged  a  sur¬ 
prise  birthday  party  with  a  guest  for  each  of 
his  years*  On  that  evening  of  October  1 1 , 
1 9 1 4,  he  looked  along  a  flower-decked  room 
and  saw  seventy  such  men  as  any  one,  no 
matter  what  honors  had  ever  come  to  him, 
might  well  feel  proud  to  see  assembled* 

From  those  who  knew  him  most  closely 
— his  fellow  directors  in  the  company,  who 
had  dealt  with  him  daily  in  the  stress  of  cir¬ 
cumstance — came  the  testimony,  presented 


225 


READING  THE  RECORD 


in  a  form  whose  beauty  of  design  was  worthy 
of  the  contents: 

“You  are  not  living  with  the  memories 
of  the  past  but  are  using  the  opportunities 
of  the  present  to  realize  the  promises  of  the 
future;  this  keeps  you  young  at  heart.  You 
have  put  nothing  before  honor,  duty  and 
service,  and  happiness  has  been  the  result. 
You  have  measured  not  the  vanity  of  life, 
but  its  importance,  facing  its  difficulties 
with  courage.  You  have  seen  cherished  am¬ 
bitions  realized.  While  disappointments  and 
sorrows  have  been  your  portion  at  times, 
they  did  not  crush  your  hope  or  fill  your 
heart  with  fear,  or  cause  you  to  lose  faith 
in  yourself,  your  fellow  men  and  your  God, 
Thus  have  your  years  been  crowned  with 
the  best  that  life  can  bring.  As  you  face  the 
future,  your  life  will  be  an  inspiration  to  all 
upon  whom  its  light  may  shine,  teaching 
them  in  its  gentleness  and  kindness  the 
wisdom  and  strength  and  peace  of  a  well- 
ordered  life  that  has  come  naturally  and 
progressively  to  its  full  fruition.” 

As  the  evening  went  on,  man  after  man 
arose  and  gave  his  tribute — Dr.  John  A. 
Brashear,  “Pennsylvania’s  foremost  citizen,” 
world  famous  for  his  work  in  science  and 
astronomy,  but  known  to  all  Pittsburgh  as 


226 


READING  THE  RECORD 


“Uncle  John”;  Colonel  Samuel  Harden 
Church,  President  of  Carnegie  Institute; 
Justice  W.  P.  Potter  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Pennsylvania;  Dr.  George  W.  Bailey,  a 
prominent  merchant  of  Philadelphia;  the 
Honorable  Thomas  H.  Murray;  Dr.  D.  S. 
Stephens  of  Kansas  City;  Francis  J.  Tor¬ 
rance;  D.  P.  Black;  James  W.  Kinnear;  A. 
J.  Kelly;  the  Reverend  Dr.  Frank  W.  Sneed, 
his  pastor.  Willis  F.  McCook,  a  leader  of  the 
Pittsburgh  bar,  presented  him  with  a  Birth¬ 
day  book,  a  beautiful  example  of  book  art, 
which  contained  a  greeting  to  which  each 
guest  appended  his  signature. 

From  Governor  Brumbaugh  of  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania  came  the  written  message, 
addressed  to  Howard  Heinz:  “You  little 
know  how  much  your  good  father  is  loved. 
His  splendid  enthusiasm,  his  fine  business 
insight,  his  manly  modesty,  his  love  for 
others,  and,  above  all,  his  fine  Christian  char¬ 
acter,  make  him  a  great  leader  and  one  of 
Pennsylvania's  truly  noble  citizens.” 

John  Wanamaker,  addressing  Mr.  Heinz 
as  “My  dear  long-time  friend,”  wrote: 
“However  the  years  may  count  up,  neither 


227 


READING  THE  RECORD 


time  nor  multiplying  duties  faithfully  done 
by  you  seem  to  make  you  olden  Keep  straight 
on,  dear  man  of  infinite  kindness,  of  modest 
generosity  and  manly  friendships,  and  noble 
Christian  testimony,  and  great  shall  be  your 
reward  on  earth  as  well  as  in  Heaven,” 
Hardly  able  to  command  his  feelings  or 
voice,  Mr,  Heinz  responded  to  these  testi¬ 
monials: 

4 In  a  sense,  I  have  done  very  little,  I 
have  tried  to  inspire  a  little  in  others  because 
I  believe  in  humanity,  I  believe  in  men. 
There  are  so  few  dishonest  people  in  the 
world  that  all  it  has  been  necessary  for 
me  to  do  has  been  simply  to  keep  an  eye  on 
the  few  who  need  watching,  and  then  trust 
everyone  else. 

“It  has  not  been  necessary  for  me  to  do 
much.  I  could  always  go  away  from  home 
knowing  that  my  splendid  partners  and 
business  associates  would  do  better  when 
I  was  away  than  when  I  was  at  home. 
When  you  have  your  partners  who  can  do 
these  things,  and  do  them  so  much  better, 
what  is  the  use  of  your  doing  them?  No 
institution  of  any  kind  ever  was  made 
great  by  any  one  man.  You  and  I  would 
not  be  the  men  we  are  today  had  it  not  been 


228 


READING  THE  RECORD 


for  the  men  who  have  helped  us.  This  is 
my  faith. 

“Our  birthdays  after  fifty  come  and 
pass  too  rapidly.  Andrew  Carnegie  once 
said  that  the  forties  were  the  years  of 
meditation.  I  would  add  to  this,  that  the 
fifties  and  the  later  years  are  the  years  of 
philosophy.  If  we  do  not  by  this  time 
philosophize,  we  are  not  getting  out  of 
life  what  we  might. 

“There  are  three  things  men  should  do 
in  this  life,  and  they  are  about  all  there  is 
to  life.  The  first  is  to  plan  for  the  comfort 
of  our  loved  ones,  the  second  is  to  so  live 
that  we  may  enjoy  the  respect,  the  esteem 
and  the  confidence  of  our  fellow  men. 
Last,  but  not  least,  is  to  do  just  one  greater 
thing— live  for  the  hereafter.0 

He  declared  that  night  that  he  felt  as  if 
he  were  no  more  than  forty;  and  for  five 
years  following  he  continued  to  work  and 
live  as  if  he  did,  indeed,  enjoy  a  gift  of  un¬ 
ending  youth. 

In  the  end  of  January,  1919,  he  went  to 
Florida,  taking  with  him  his  old  friend. 
Bishop  Joseph  F.  Hartzell,  who  had  long 
served  as  Bishop  for  Africa  of  the  Methodist 


229 


READING  THE  RECORD 


Episcopal  Church*  He  returned  in  April, 
and  all  his  friends  remarked  his  physical 
vigor  and  his  mental  and  spiritual  vivacity* 
On  May  9,  after  luncheon  with  the  Directors 
at  the  plant,  he  learned  that  an  old  salesman 
was  in,  sent  for  him  and  enjoyed  one  of  the 
reminiscent  visits  and  chats  that  he  loved* 

He  awoke  on  Saturday  with  a  slight  cold* 
His  physician  advised  him  to  stay  in  his 
room,  but  thought  he  should  be  well  enough 
by  Sunday  night  to  leave  for  New  York, 
where  he  meant  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  World's  Sun¬ 
day  School  Association* 

On  Sunday  pneumonia  developed*  He 
became  rapidly  worse,  with  only  a  short 
period  of  improvement  on  Tuesday,  and  at 
four  o'clock  on  the  next  afternoon.  May 
1 4th,  the  end  came,  in  his  seventy-fifth  year* 
The  funeral  services,  held  in  the  East  Liberty 
Presbyterian  Church,  were  conducted  by  his 
pastor.  Dr*  Frank  W*  Sneed,  and  his  friend. 
Bishop  Hartzell*  He  was  laid  away  in  Home- 
wood  Cemetery* 

The  news  of  his  death  was  received 
throughout  the  world  as  tidings  of  a  genuine 


230 


Memorial  Erected  by  Employees  of  H.  J.  Heinz  Company  in  Memory  of  the  Founder 


READING  THE  RECORD 


loss*  From  Tokio,  Japan,  came  a  cable  dis¬ 
patch  signed  by  the  triumvirate  of  great 
Japanese,  Okuma,  Shibusawa  and  Saketani, 
which  epitomized  the  general  feeling  in  the 
four  words:  “Your  loss,  world's  loss*"  In 
New  York,  at  the  meeting  of  the  World's 
Sunday  School  Association  committee  that 
he  had  planned  to  attend,  John  Wanamaker 
said  with  tears:  “A  great  man  is  gone,"  “A 
whole  company  will  have  to  be  called  to  fill 
the  void  left  by  his  going  away,"  said  one  of 
the  newspapers* 

There  were  many  memorial  meetings,  and 
four  of  these,  of  which  one  was  in  Tokio, 
were  great  public  ones  attended  by  such  as¬ 
semblages  as  are  drawn  only  by  public  oc¬ 
casions  that  stir  men  deeply*  Those  who  had 
known  him  longest  and  most  closely — the 
company's  employees — held  a  meeting  in 
the  auditorium  of  the  plant,  where  there  was 
a  wonderful,  spontaneous  outpouring  of 
affection*  Its  tenor  can  be  best  expressed  in 
the  words  of  the  First  Vice-President  of  the 
Company,  Sebastian  Mueller:  “He  was  a 
father  to  us  all*  He  reared  us  into  manhood. 


READING  THE  RECORD 

and  he  guided  us  with  a  kind  and  gentle 
spirit/' 

There  is  no  intention  of  reproducing  here, 
or  even  quoting  from,  the  tributes  of  respect, 
admiration,  gratitude  and  affection  that 
came  by  one  impulse  from  all  parts  of  the 
world.  If  they  were  combined,  they  would 
make  a  volume  far  larger  than  this  which 
tells  the  story  of  the  life  that  brought  forth 
these  testimonials* 

We  know  of  no  more  fitting  way  to  con¬ 
clude  the  history  of  that  faithful  and  unpre¬ 
tentious  life  than  with  just  three  short 
quotations* 

Two  are  from  workingmen*  A  simple  old 
laborer  of  the  plant,  who  stood  unob¬ 
trusively  near  the  door  of  the  crowded  plant 
auditorium  during  the  employees'  memorial 
meeting,  turned  away  when  it  was  over  and 
said,  addressing  nobody  in  particular:  “Well, 
they  told  no  lies  about  him*  He  was  an 
honest  man,  and  he  was  my  best  friend*" 

“I  have  lost  the  best  friend  I  ever  had," 
said  another  workingman  who  had  served 
a  quarter  century  in  a  Western  branch. 


232 


READING  THE  RECORD 


When  his  body  lay  coffined  at  home,  a 
child  came  shyly  to  the  door  and  offered 
a  handful  of  wayside  blossoms*  “He  was 
always  doing  so  much  for  us,”  she  said* 


233 


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Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


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